LINCOLN  LESSONS 
FOR   TO-DAY 

rf^^K. 
)By 

GARRCTT  NEWKIRK 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 
HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


LINCOLN  LESSONS  FOR  TODAY 


By 
GARRETT   NEWKIRK 


"Today  includes  yesterday,  and 
will  be  yesterday,  tomorrow" 


NEW  YORK 

DUFFIELD   AND    COMPANY 

1921 


Copyright.  1921,  by 
DUPFIELD  .&  COMPANY 


PBINTBC  IK  THB  UNITBD  STATES  or  AMERICA 


ro 

MY  WIFE 
MARTHA   THE  FAITHFUL 


CONTENTS 

MM 

THE  MAN 1 

EARLY  ADDRESSES.    I 3 

EARLY  ADDRESSES.    II 7 

EARLY  ADDRESSES.    Ill 11 

EARLY  ADDRESSES.    IV 15 

EARLY  ADDRESSES.    V 18 

THE  GETTYSBURG  ADDRESS 21 

THE  WISE  MEN  NOT  CONSULTED 24 

SUPER-GREAT  LEADERS 27 

Nor  MANY  EQUALS  IN  HISTORY 3ib 

WHO  WAS  LINCOLN'S  BEST  FRIEND? 34 

His  CONSCIENCE 37 

His  HEREDITY 40 

WAS  HE  AN  EDUCATED  MAN? 43 

EDUCATION  OP  PATRIOTISM 47 

EDUCATION  BY  EXCLUSION 51 

HE  WENT  TO  SCHOOL — To  HIMSELF 54 

HE  SPECIALIZED 57 

His  SECOND  SPECIAL  COURSE 59 

WHY  HE  STUDIED  EUCLID 62 

DID  EUCLID  MAKE  HIM  PRESIDENT? 66 

THREE-INCH  YARDSTICKS 70 

His  RELIGIOUS  CREED 73 

His  RELIGION 76 

A  CHURCH  MEMBER  AT  LARGE 79 

His  GREAT  SERMON 82 


Contents 

PAGK 

FOE  CHRISTMAS  AND  NEW  YEAR 86 

To  ALL  PATRIOTS 89 

OTHER  NATIONS       91 

GUARDED  SPEECH 94 

FAREWELL 97 

ON  CHILDHOOD  READING 100 

BREVITY  OF  SPEECH 103 

STANTON'S  VISION 106 

THE  UNSELFISH  MAN: — WANTS  LESS,  NOT  MORE    .    .  109 

THE  MAN  WHO  STATED  WITH  His  JOB 112 

THE  MONUMENT  OF  LIVING  STONES 116 

WAS  HE  A  DISCIPLINARIAN? 119 

ADVENTURE  AND  ESCAPE — 1828 123 

PAY  HEED  TO  His  WORDS 126 

CAMPAIGN  EXPENSES 130 

A  "Sec  BIT"  CAMPAIGN  133 


LINCOLN  LESSONS  FOR  TODAY 


LINCOLN  LESSONS 
FOR  TODAY 


THE   MAN 

BECAUSE  of  personality  unique  in  manner, 
simple  and  unstudied;'  because  of  his  hon- 
esty, undeviating  and  sincere,  his  intimate  knowl- 
edge and  understanding  of  his  fellow  men,  with 
kindness  for  all;  because  of  the  purity  of  his  life, 
his  courtesy  to  women,  his  respect  for  the  aged, 
his  affection  for  children;  because  of  the  accuracy 
and  depth  of  his  thinking,  his  ability  to  embody 
the  greatest  thought  in  fewest  words,  his  humor, 
his  logic,  his  directness  of  purpose  and  homely 
simplicity;  because  of  his  modesty,  unselfishness 
and  infinite  patience;  because  of  his  patriotism 
and  the  dominant  part  he  played  in  the  most 
important  crisis  of  a  nation's  history;  because 
of  the  love  he  inspired  in  the  hearts  of  millions  and 
the  loyal  devotion  of  armies  and  navies;  because 
of  his  tragic  end  and  the  mournfullest  night  this 
country  ever  knew — ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  com- 


2  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

mands  our  highest  admiration,  affection  and 
gratitude.  He  stands  before  us  as  the  most 
interesting  figure  and  the  greatest  save  one  in 
American  history. 

In  all  history  we  hear  of  no  other  who  within 
fifty  years  after  his  death  became  so  universally 
respected  and  beloved,  for  whom  so  many  had  the 
feeling  almost  of  personal  kinship. 

As  the  tender  thoughts  of  a  mother,  or  the 
admonitions  of  a  dying  father,  so  come  his  unfor- 
getable  words  to  us  in  tune  of  trial  or  distress; 
and  should  there  be  temptation  to  wrong-doing  we 
shall  see  before  us,  like  a  mentor  with  uplifted 
hand,  his  towering  Conscience. 


EARLY  ADDRESSES 


SOME  have  spoken  of  these  disparagingly,  as 
having  little  value.  Truth  is  that  a  number 
of  subjects  discussed  in  the  thirties  and  early 
forties  have  little  interest  comparatively  for 
readers  of  a  later  generation:  and  few  of  the 
critics  have  taken  time  to  consider  carefully  those 
early  first  deliverances.  Bearing  in  mind  the 
conditions  then  present,  we  shall  find  them  well 
worthy  of  study,  showing  the  maturity  of  thought 
already  possessed  by  a  very  young  man.  We 
will  be  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  in  some  re- 
spects the  education  of  the  boy  and  youth  must 
have  been  pretty  thorough,  notwithstanding  his 
lack  of  schooling.  In  one  way  or  another  he  had 
acquired  the  essentials  of  knowledge  that  justified 
his  entrance  into  public  life. 

The  first  address  to  be  included  hi  "The  Com- 
plete Works"  *  of  Lincoln  was  written  for,  "the 
people  of  Sangamon  County,"  when  Lincoln  was 
a  candidate  for  the  office  of  Representative  in  the 

*  Edited  by  Nicolay  and  Hay. 


4  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

legislature  of  Illinois.  It  was  dated  March  9, 
1832,  when  he  was  only  twenty- three  years  and 
three  weeks  old.  Two  years  before,  in  the  same 
month  of  March,  he  had  arrived  in  the  adjoining 
county  of  Macon,  mud-bespattered,  driving  an  ox 
team.  Immediately  he  had  helped  build  a  log 
cabin,  split  rails  for  the  fencing  of  ten  acres  of 
prairie,  helped  plow  the  field  and  plant  it  with  sod- 
corn.  The  following  spring  he  had  engaged  him- 
self to  Orcutt  to  take  a  flat-boat  to  New  Orleans 
for  the  wage  of  twelve  dollars  per  month.  And 
now,  one  year  later,  probably  without  an  un- 
patched  suit  of  clothes,  he  is  a  candidate  for  the 
legislature,  and  issues  his  address  in  the  form  of 
hand  bills  that  are  sent  for  distribution  to  the 
several  townships. 

He  starts  out  with  the  question  of  internal 
improvements  in  relation  to  Sangamon  County 
itself,  as  yet  without  connection  with  the  outside 
world  or  adequate  markets,  except  by  the  poorest 
wagon  roads  running  fifty  miles  to  the  Illinois 
River,  or  to  the  new  town  on  Lake  Michigan, 
one  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles  distant. 
Under  present  circumstances  the  young  states- 
man favors  the  improvement  of  the  Sangamon 
River  as  the  only  one  the  people  are  able 
to  pay  for.  He  shows  in  detail  how  this  can  be 
accomplished,  as  no  other  man  probably  in  that 


Early  Addresses  5 

county  knew.  It  would,  he  thought,  make  the 
river  navigable  "for  boats  of  twenty-five  to  thirty 
tons'  burden."  Yet  he  says,  "No  other  improve- 
ment that  reason  will  justify  us  in  hoping  for  can 
equal  in  utility  the  railroad.  But,  however  de- 
sirable it*  may  be,  however  high  our  imaginations 
may  be  heated  by  thoughts  of  it,  there  is  always  a 
heart-appalling  shock  accompanying  the  amount  of 
its  cost  which  causes  us  to  shrink  from  our  pleasing 
anticipations."  The  cost  had  been  estimated  at 
$290,000  by  its  projectors. 

Then  he  attacks  "the  practice  of  loaning  money 
at  exorbitant  rates  of  interest" — something  that 
no  new  community  has  ever  been  entirely  able  to 
escape.  He  would  of  course  favor  restrictive  laws 
upon  usury  in  the  State.  Such  laws  were  passed 
not  many  years  later. 

The  next  subject  for  consideration  by  the  Legis- 
lature on  which  Lincoln  lays  particular  stress,  is 
that  of  education.  Considering  that  he  had  not 
been  to  school  himself  a  whole  year  altogether, 
this  seems  remarkable.  First  of  all  he  takes  the 
patriotic  view  "That  every  man  may  receive  at 
least  a  moderate  education,  and  thereby  be  en- 
abled to  read  the  histories  of  his  own  and  other 
countries,  and  duly  appreciate  the  value  of  our 
free  institutions  ...  is  of  vital  importance,  to  say 

*  The  line  proposed  ran  to  the  Illinois  River  and  beyond. 


6  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

nothing  of  all  being  able  to  read  the  scriptures 
and  other  works  of  both  a  religious  and  moral 
nature  for  themselves." 

We  should  remember  that  at  this  time,  or  not 
long  before,  in  a  number  of  the  western  states,  a 
considerable  minority  of  the  people  could  not 
write  their  own  names,  but  in  signing  legal  docu- 
ments made  their  X  or  mark.  The  common 
school  system  of  Illinois  had  been  established  by 
law  seven  years  before,  but,  owing  to  the  thinly 
settled  condition  of  the  State  and  the  general 
poverty,  there  had  been  but  a  slight  advance  in 
popular  education. 


EARLY   ADDRESSES 

ii 

IN  his  first  address:  "To  the  voters  of  Sangamon 
County,"  announcing  his  candidacy  for  the 
legislature,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  Lincoln 
was  considerably  less  than  half  way  from  the  day 
of  his  birth  to  that  time  when  his  voice  should 
ring  out  "high  toned  and  clear,  across  the  waiting 
land,"  in  the  conflict  with  Douglas  for  supremacy 
in  the  Prairie  State. 

He  was  little  more  than  a  youth,  scarce  removed 
from  the  ax  and  plow-handles,  just  away  from  the 
flatboat  floating  down  the  Sangamon,  the  Illinois, 
and  the  Mississippi.  And  yet,  in  this  almost 
boyish  address  he  struck  the  keynote  of  his  whole 
public  career. 

First,  devotion  to  the  truth:  "Upon  the  subjects 
above  treated,  I  have  spoken  as  I  thought.  I 
may  be  wrong  in  regard  to  any  or  all  of  them,  but 
holding  it  a  sound  maxim  that  it  is  better  to  be 
sometimes  right  than  at  all  times  wrong,  as  soon 
as  I  discover  my  opinions  to  be  erroneous,  I  shall 
be  ready  to  renounce  them." 


8  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

Second,  his  ambition:  "  Every  man  is  said  to 
have  his  peculiar  ambition.  I  can  say,  for  one, 
that  I  have  no  other  so  great  as  that  of  being  truly 
esteemed  of  my  fellow  men,  by  rendering  myself 
worthy  of  their  esteem.  How  far  I  shall  succeed 
in  gratifying  this  ambition  is  yet  to  be  developed. 
I  am  young,  and  unknown  to  many  of  you.  I 
was  born,  and  have  ever  remained,  hi  the  most 
humble  walks  of  life.  I  have  no  wealthy  or  popu- 
lar relations  or  friends  to  recommend  me.  My 
case  is  thrown  exclusively  upon  the  independent 
voters  of  the  country;  if  I  am  elected  they  will 
have  conferred  a  favor  upon  me  for  which  I  shall 
be  unremitting  in  my  labors  to  compensate. 
But,  if  the  good  people  in  their  wisdom  shall  see 
fit  to  keep  me  in  the  background,  I  have  been  too 
familiar  with  disappointments  to  be  very  much 
chagrined. 

Your  friend  and  fellow  citizen, 

A.  LINCOLN." 

He  had  little  opportunity  of  following  up  the 
address  and  getting  acquainted  with  the  "many" 
who  did  not  know  him  in  other  parts  of  the  large 
county. 

The  ink  was  barely  dry  on  the  handbill  address, 
when  the  Black  Hawk  war  broke  out.  In  little 
more  than  a  month  Lincoln  was  elected  Captain 


Early  Addresses  9 

of  the  local  company  of  volunteers  by  a  three  to 
one  vote,  and  was  on  the  way  to  the  scene  of  con- 
flict. Late  in  the  summer,  after  a  reenlistment 
and  discharge  with  the  war  practically  ended,  he 
returned  to  the  political  field  of  Sangamon.  Hav- 
ing had  their  horses  stolen,  he  and  several  friends 
were  forced  to  make  most  of  their  way  back  on 
foot.  The  election  took  place  on  the  6th  of 
August.  This  was  the  only  election  in  which  Lin- 
coln was  ever  defeated  by  a  direct  vote  of  the 
people.  Thirty-five  years  later,  when  Douglas 
won  the  senatorship,  the  defeat  came  at  the  hands 
of  the  legislature,  not  by  popular  vote.  But  in 
the  democratic  precinct  of  New  Salem,  where 
Lincoln  was  acquainted,  he,  a  Whig,  received 
227  of  the  300  votes  cast.  After  this  first  political 
campaign  he  was  elected  to  the  Illinois  legisla- 
ture for  three  consecutive  terms,  and  declined 
the  fourth  nomination. 

What  justified  Lincoln  at  this  early  period  of  his 
life,  with  so  little  of  preparation — as  we  suppose — 
in  aspiring  to  so  important  a  position  as  that  of  a 
legislator  for  the  state?  First,  we  may  say,  it 
was  the  day  of  ambitious  young  men  in  the  new 
commonwealth.  They  were  coming  from  the  East 
and  Southeast  in  rapidly  increasing  numbers  and 
these  young  voters  were  inclined  to  favor  candi- 
dates of  their  own  age  rather  than  older  men, 


10  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

who  for  the  most  part  were  unprogressive,  if  not 
ignorant.  A  few  years  later,  in  this  same  environ- 
ment, Stephen  A.  Douglas,  four  years  younger 
than  Lincoln,  recently  come  from  Vermont, 
where  he  had  been  a  cabinet  maker  with  limited 
education,  became  in  rapid  succession  a  school 
teacher,  a  law  student,  a  practicing  attorney,  and 
at  the  age  of  twenty-two  a  successful  candidate 
for  the  office  of  states'  attorney.  Similarly,  in 
almost  every  case,  if  the  young  voters  of  Illinois 
felt  that  the  newcomer  was  a  man  of  ability  with 
good  fighting  spirit,  they  were  not  apt  to  trouble 
themselves  overmuch  about  his  antecedent  his- 
tory. It  was  a  rare  opportunity  for  the  aspiring 
young  men,  and  they  were  not  at  all  slow  or  timid 
in  taking  hold. 


EARLY  ADDRESSES 

in 

WHAT  preparation  had  Lincoln  to  justify  his 
high  ambition?  That  he  should  announce 
himself  a  candidate  for  the  legislature  at  the  early 
age  of  twenty-three  seems  almost  audacious. 
Perhaps  it  appeared  so  to  him,  for  he  says  near 
the  conclusion  of  this  address:  "Considering  the 
great  degree  of  modesty  which  should  always  at- 
tend youth  it  is  probable  that  I  have  already  been 
more  presuming  than  becomes  me."  He  had  the 
unusual  combination  of  much  modesty  with  even 
greater  courage.  He  said  many  years  afterward 
that  he  had  no  rememberance  of  a  man  he  was 
afraid  of.  But  this  seemingly  new  purpose: 
How  old  was  it?  We  do  not  know.  It  probably 
dates  back  to  his  boyhood.  Before  he  was  ten 
years  old,  his  own  mother  had  stimulated  his  am- 
bition, saying,  as  reported,  "  Study  and  learn  all 
you  can,  Abe,  make  the  most  of  yourself:  You've 
just  as  good  blood  in  your  veins  as  Washington 
had."  And  in  his  address  at  Trenton  in  February, 
1861,  he  himself  stated  that  away  back  in  the 


12  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

earliest  days  of  his  reading  he  was  impressed  by 
the  story  and  example  of  revolutionary  heroes. 
He  was  ever  a  dreamer,  and  his  dreams  began 
early. 

Of  what  was  he  dreaming  when  he  borrowed 
books,  any  he  could  hear  of,  miles  around,  espe- 
cially those  that  related  to  American  biography 
and  history?  How  early  did  his  hero  worship 
begin?  We  know  that  the  ambition  of  any  normal 
boy  is  that  he  shall  be  like  his  hero,  and,  hi  time 
achieve  like  distinction. 

Of  what  was  the  lad  dreaming  when  he  bor- 
rowed from  the  owner,  Esquire  Turnham,  "The 
Statutes  of  Indiana?"  How  many  boys  were  there 
think  you,  hi  Spencer  and  the  adjoining  counties, 
who  would  have  choosen  that  book  for  close  and 
thorough  study?  The  book  contained  beside 
statutes,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  Act  of 
Virginia  passed  hi  1783,  by  which  the  "  Territory 
North  Westward  of  the  river  Ohio"  was  ceded  to 
the  United  States,  and  the  Ordinance  of  1787, 
passed  by  Congress  for  governing  the  same  terri- 
tory (a  region  now  comprising  many  states). 
There  was  a  clause  in  this  Ordinance  prohibiting 
slavery  to  which  Lincoln  referred  many  times  in 
later  years. 

Of  what  was  the  youth  dreaming  when  he  would 


Early  Addresses  13 

walk  fifteen  miles  or  more  to  hear  a  noted  speaker; 
when  he  crowded  forward  with  others,  barefooted 
as  he  was,  to  shake  hands  with  a  man  like  Brecken- 
ridge  and  tell  him,  "You  made  the  best  speech  I 
ever  heard"?  When,  thinking  of  it  all,  he  walked 
rapidly  homeward,  ready  to  repeat  the  substance 
of  the  speech  to  any  audience  he  could  gather, 
imitating  closely  the  style  and  action  of  the  orator 
himself? 

Indiana  and  Illinois  were  neighbor  states,  with 
practically  the  same  problems  to  meet  of  law  and 
order,  roads,  bridges,  and  improvement  of  navi- 
gable streams.  Think  of  the  value  of  such  a 
thorough  study  of  the  statutes  of  the  older  state 
for  application  to  the  conditions  of  the  newer. 

Verily  the  dreams  of  the  boy  and  youth  were 
coming  true.  He  was  no  mere  upstart  rushing  in 
"where  angels  fear  to  tread."  Not  many  of  those 
who  met  at  Vandalia  in  the  year  1834  had  received 
a  better  practical  schooling,  a  more  thorough 
preparation  for  the  work  to  be  done.  Making 
few  speeches, — none  long — he  worked,  and  made 
his  mark  distinctively  on  the  history  of  the  state. 
It  was  largely  by  his  adroit  management  that  the 
capitol  was  removed  to  Springfield,  a  consumma- 
tion of  great  value. 

So  we  may  say  that  his  first  "address  to  the 
voters  of  Sangamon  County"  was  fully  justified 


14  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

by  Lincoln's  ability  to  meet  the  requirements  of 
the  office  to  which  he  aspired.  Although,  having 
been  prevented  from  making  the  necessary  can- 
vass, he  was  defeated,  the  "address"  was  just  as 
applicable  two  years  later  when  he  was  elected. 
There  was  no  word  in  it  to  erase  or  change.  This 
was  a  characteristic  of  the  addresses  he  was  to 
make  afterward,  even  to  the  last  of  his  public 
utterances. 


EARLY  ADDRESSES 

IV 

ON  January  27th,  1837,  Mr.  Lincoln,  then 
nearly  28  years  old,  delivered  a  speech  before 
the  young  men's  Lyceum  of  Springfield,  Illinois. 
The  subject  of  the  evening  was,  "The  Perpetua- 
tion of  our  Political  Institutions." 

I  would  that  every  student  of  Lincoln  might 
have  access  to  "The  Complete  Works"  and  read 
the  speech  as  a  whole.  First,  he  considers  briefly 
our  great  inheritance,  geographic  and  govern- 
mental; next  he  asks,  wherein  is  our  danger?  It 
cannot  come,  he  says,  from  abroad.  "It  must 
spring  up  amongst  us.  If  destruction  be  our 
lot,  we  must  ourselves  be  its  author  and  finisher. 
As  a  nation  of  freemen  we  must  live  through  all 
time  or  die  by  suicide." 

"If  I  am  not  over  wary,  there  is  even  now  some- 
thing of  ill  omen  amongst  us.  I  mean  the  in- 
creasing disregard  for  law  which  pervades  the 
country — the  growing  disposition  to  substitute 
the  wild  and  furious  passions  in  lieu  of  the  sober 
judgment  of  courts,  and  the  worse  than  savage 


16  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

mobs  for  the  executive  ministers  of  justice.  That 
it  exists,  though  grating  on  our  feelings  to  admit, 
it  would  be  a  violation  of  the  truth  to  deny.  Ac- 
counts of  outrages  committed  by  mobs  form  the 
every-day  news  of  the  times.  They  have  per- 
vaded the  country  from  New  England  to  Loui- 
siana." 

After  stating  that  the  conditions  are  nation 
wide,  he  refers  particularly  to  certain  extreme 
cases  in  Mississippi  where  first  gamblers  were 
hung,  then  "negroes  suspected  of  conspiring  to 
raise  an  insurrection,  then  white  men  suspected 
of  being  in  league  with  the  negroes,  and  finally 
strangers  from  neighboring  states  going  thither 
on  business  .  .  .  thus  went  on  the  process  of  hang- 
ing till  dead  men  were  seen  dangling  from  boughs 
of  trees  on  many  a  roadside."  .  .  .  Again  he  says: 
"Turn  to  that  horror-striking  scene  in  St.  Louis 
where  a  mulatto  murderer  was  burned  to  death." 

Then  he  proceeds  to  enumerate  the  consequences 
if  such  things  are  allowed  to  continue.  Speaking 
of  the  effect  on  the  minds  of  men  he  says,  "It 
goes  on  step  by  step  till  all  the  walls  erected  for  the 
defence  of  persons  and  property  are  trodden  down 
and  disregarded.  But  all  this  is  not  the  full  ex- 
tent of  the  evil.  By  such  examples  .  .  .  the  per- 
petrators of  the  acts  going  unpunished  .  .  .  the 
lawless  in  spirit  are  encouraged  to  become  lawless 


Early  Addresses  17 

in  practice,  and  having  been  used  to  no  restraint 
but  dread  of  punishment  they  thus  become 
absolutely  unrestrained.  Having  ever  regarded 
government  as  their  deadliest  bane,  they  make  a 
jubilee  of  the  suspension  of  its  operations,  and  pray 
for  nothing  so  much  as  its  total  annihilation." 

Could  we  find  a  better  description  of  the  spirit 
of  the  I.  W.  W.  and  the  Bolshevism  of  our  present 
day? 

Continuing  he  says:  "Whenever  this  effect 
shall  be  produced  among  us,  when  the  vicious  por- 
tion of  the  population  shall  be  permitted  to 
gather  in  bands  of  hundreds  and  thousands,  and 
burn  churches,  ravage  and  rob,  throw  printing 
presses  into  rivers,  shoot  editors,  hang  and  burn 
people  obnoxious  to  themselves  at  pleasure  and 
with  impunity,  depend  on  it,  this  government  can- 
not last." 

This  has  remarkable  force  from  the  fact  that 
soon  after,  November  7th  of  the  same  year,  the 
Rev.  Elisha  P.  Lovejoy,  an  abolitionist  editor, 
was  shot  and  killed  after  suffering  the  loss  of  three 
printing  presses  within  twelve  months,  at  Alton, 
Illinois. 


EARLY  ADDRESSES 


CONSIDERING  further  in  his  Lyceum  speech 
the  danger  to  our  political  institutions,  of  a 
growing  disregard  of  law,  Lincoln  asks,  "How 
shall  we  fortify  against  it? — The  answer  is  simple. 
Let  every  American,  every  lover  of  liberty,  every 
well  wisher  of  posterity  swear  by  the  blood  of 
the  Revolution  never  to  violate  in  the  least  par- 
ticular the  laws  of  the  country,  and  never  to  toler- 
ate their  violation  by  others.  What  the  patriots 
of  seventy-six  did  to  support  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  so 
let  every  American  now  pledge  his  life,  his  property 
and  his  sacred  honor — let  every  man  remember 
that  to  violate  the  law  is  to  trample  on  the  blood 
of  his  father,  and  to  tear  the  charter  of  his  own 
and  his  children's  liberty.  Let  reverence  for  the 
laws  be  breathed  by  every  American  mother  to 
the  babe  that  prattles  in  her  lap;  let  it  be  taught 
in  schools,  seminaries  and  colleges  ...  let  it  be 
preached  from  the  pulpit,  proclaimed  in  legislative 
halls,  and  enforced  in  courts  of  justice." 


Early  Addresses  19 

"Bad  laws  if  they  exist  should  be  repealed  as 
soon  as  possible;  still,  while  they  continue  in 
force,  for  the  sake  of  example  they  should  be 
religiously  observed."  .  .  . 

"THERE  is  NO  GRIEVANCE  THAT  is  A  FIT  OBJECT 

FOR  REDRESS  BY  MOB  LAW?" 

In  this  connection  Lincoln  had  in  mind  par- 
ticularly the  action  of  mobs  upon  the  abolition- 
ists, at  that  time  probably  the  worst  hated  people 
in  the  country.  He  states  the  issue  clearly  and 
logically  in  all  such  cases.  "One  of  two  positions 
is  necessarily  true — that  is,  the  thing,  (discussion 
of  slavery)  is  right  in  itself,  and  therefore  deserves 
protection,  .  .  .  or  it  is  wrong,  and  therefore  de- 
serves to  be  prohibited  by  legal  enactment;  and 
in  neither  case  is  the  interposition  of  mob  law 
necessary,  justifiable  or  excusable." 

His  own  view  of  this  matter,  the  right  to  dis- 
cuss the  question  of  slavery,  (denied  by  the 
slave-holders  and  their  followers)  is  shown  clearly 
by  the  "PROTEST"  he  wrote  to  be  spread  upon  the 
journal  of  the  State  Legislature  only  thirty-six 
days  later.  It  seems  strange  now  that  this  body, 
lawgivers  of  a  free  state,  should  have  been  so 
over-awed  by  the  dominating  slave-power  that, 
instead  of  condemning  mob  violence  and  giving 
protection  to  free  speech  within  the  borders  of  the 
state,  they  tacitly  gave  consent  to  such  outrages, 


20  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

and  passed  a  special  resolution,  condemning  the 
abolitionists  in  toto. 

Only  two  members  of  the  legislature  protested 
against  the  passage  of  this  resolution,  and  refused 
to  vote  for  it.  Their  assertion  that  "the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  is  founded  on  both  injustice  and 
bad  policy,"  seems  now  to  be  exceedingly  mild, 
but  it  required  a  good  deal  of  personal  courage  on 
the  part  of  these  two — Lincoln  and  Stone — to 
sign  such  a  statement,  and  move  that  it  be  made 
a  part  of  the  permanent  record. 

But  Lincoln  was  determined  that  no  expression 
regarding  slavery  should  be  passed  unaccom- 
panied by  the  declaration  that  it  was  an  evil. 
In  his  Lyceum  speech  a  month  before  he  had  stood 
for  the  right  of  free  speech  in  its  discussion.  It 
is  noteworthy  that  when  Lovejoy  was  murdered 
at  Alton  a  few  months  later,  not  a  newspaper  in 
Springfield,  and  few  in  the  state  uttered  a  word  of 
condemnation  of  the  act,  or  invoked  justice  on  the 
perpetrators.  No  wonder  that  Lincoln  took  a 
pessimistic  view  of  the  country's  future,  in  face  of 
such  exhibitions  of  moral  cowardice  and  shameful 
disregard  of  human  rights !  At  this  time,  when  only 
28  years  of  age,  he  stood  almost  alone  in  his  neighbor- 
hood for  the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence and  the  reign  of  law.  It  was  a  long  road 
that  lay  before  him  to  the  day  of  triumph  in  1860. 


THE  GETTYSBURG  ADDRESS 

FIVE  hundred  and  thirty  words  will  pass  for  a 
short  article  in  a  newspaper.  It  is  scanned 
by  the  reader  usually  in  three  minutes  or  less. 
Lincoln's  Gettysburg  Address  contains  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty-five  words,  just  half  the  number 
mentioned,  and  can  be  read  deliberately  in  less 
than  two  minutes.  And  a  man  might  read  it 
every  week  for  a  year,  and  at  the  last  have  a 
thought  brought  to  him  that  he  had  overlooked. 

The  oration  of  Edward  Everett,  delivered  just 
before  Lincoln's  short  speech,  consists  of  20,000 
words  and  took  nearly  two  hours  of  tune.  By 
some  present  it  was  pronounced  one  of  the  greatest 
intellectual  efforts  ever  made.  Probably  not  a 
score  of  persons  could  be  found  in  the  United 
States  today  who  have  ever  read  it  completely 
through. 

Of  the  265  words  of  Lincoln's  address,  187  are 
of  one  syllable,  and  52  have  each  two  syllables; 
of  the  remaining  sixteen,  three  are  used  twice, 
leaving  thirteen  in  all  to  be  accounted  for.  Four 
of  these  have  four  syllables  each,  and  the  remaining 
nine  each  have  three. 


22  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

The  thirteen  words  are  "altogether,"  "con- 
tinent," "consecrated,"  "consecrate,"  "created," 
"dedicate,"  "dedicated,"  "devotion,"  "govern- 
ment," "liberty,"  "proposition,"  "remaining," 
"unfinished."  The  three  repeated  are:  "dedi- 
cate," "dedicated"  and  "devotion." 

If  one  were  superstitious  he  might  think  to  find 
significance  in  the  beginning  and  ending  of  this 
list,  placed  in  alphabetical  order.  "Altogether" 
is  the  first  word,  "dedicated"  the  middle,  and 
"remaining,"  "consecrated"  the  two  last. 

It  will  be  noted  that  no  shorter  word  can  be 
substituted  for  one  of  those  containing  three  or 
four  syllables. 

Notwithstanding  the  acceptance  of  this  address 
by  all  the  English  speaking  world  as  one  of  the 
few  greatest  ever  delivered,  it  has  not  been  without 
its  critics,  who  have  found  it  full  of  faults  according 
to  their  standards.  They  have  called  attention 
to  the  many  repetitions  of  certain  words.  They 
have  said  that  eleven  repetitions  of  the  word 
"that"  was  inexcusable  in  so  short  an  address,  in 
one  place  adjoining, — "that  that,"  (as  Lincoln  him- 
self might  have  said, ' '  end  to  end  ") .  They  thought 
he  should  have  avoided  the  use  of  the  plural  pro- 
noun "we"  nine  times:  of  "here"  five  times, — 
twice  in  one  sentence.  They  said  it  was  impos- 
sible to  consider  this  speech  a  master-composition. 


The  Gettysburg  Address  23 

One  thing  is  certain,  Lincoln  was  totally  un- 
aware that  he  was  competing  for  a  literary  prize. 
He  was  only  trying  to  put  a  great  thought  in  few 
words  that  every  hearer  or  reader  should  not  fail 
to  understand. 

Here  is  the  test:  add  or  subtract  a  word  any- 
where, or  substitute  one  word  for  another,  make 
the  speech  by  one  word  longer  or  shorter,  without 
weakening  the  sentence  involved  and  the  speech 
as  a  whole. 

No  critic  could  ever  tamper  with  it,  trying  to 
improve  it,  without  disappointing  himself.  Each 
word  fits  exactly,  like  a  piece  of  perfect  mosaic. 
That  several  of  the  pieces  happen  to  be  alike  does 
not  mar  in  the  least  the  perfection  of  the  work- 
manship. 

There  is  one  small  book  that  should  be  hi  every  American 
home.  It  is  called  "Ideals  of  the  Republic."  It  contains  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  Washington's  two  Inaugural  Addresses  and  his  Farewell 
Address,  Lincoln's  two  Inaugural  Addresses  and  the  Gettysburg 
speech. — It  is  of  good  print,  that  any  man  may  carry  in  his  coat 
pocket  for  reading  in  spare  moments.  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  65c. 


THE  WISE  MEN  NOT  CONSULTED 

IN  the  selection  of  boys  and  their  preparation  for 
the  making  of  great  men,  the  Almighty  seems 
to  have  paid  little  attention  in  times  past  to  the 
rules  of  the  schools  or  opinions  of  the  learned. 

Suppose  that  about  the  year  1809  a  convention 
had  been  called  of  those  reputed  to  be  wise,  in  the 
United  States.  Suppose  it  had  been  told  these 
people,  that,  half  a  century  thereafter  a  great 
emergency  would  come  in  the  affairs  of  this  coun- 
try; a  crisis  involving  the  very  existence  of  the 
nation;  that  a  great  leader  would  be  needed  for 
this  most  critical  time;  that  it  was  immediately 
necessary  to  seek  out  a  proper  child  for  the  making 
of  a  man  to  meet  that  great  occasion,  and  to  see 
to  it  that  he  was  rightly  educated  and  prepared. 
What  would  they  have  done  about  it? 

Of  course  the  first  thing  would  have  been  to 
appoint  a  committee  of  chief  educators  with  power 
to  act.  These  would  have  proceeded  to  find  a 
comely  Hannah  with  a  promising  Samuel — by 
competitive  examination,  possibly.  They  would 
have  said  that,  of  course,  the  child  should  come  of 


The  Wise  Men  Not  Consulted          25 

good  stock,  one  of  the  first  families  of  the  land; 
that  he  must  be  educated  with  great  care,  by  the 
most  celebrated  tutors,  that  his  conduct  should 
be  governed  by  strict  regulations.  In  order  that 
his  manners  or  morals  might  not  be  corrupted  he 
should  be  allowed  to  move  only  in  the  best  society, 
and  have  no  " common"  associations.  They 
would  have  said,  "Let  us  show  the  world  what 
proper  selection  and  right  training  will  develop. 
When  the  occasion  comes,  WE  will  have  the  MAN." 
But  the  Almighty  found  a  poor  boy  in  a  pioneer 
cabin  among  the  white-oak  hills.  His  feet  were 
bare  and  his  garments  homespun.  His  books 
were  few,  his  mother  almost  his  only  teacher. 
He  had— 

"  Free  growth  among  the  wild  flowers,  plants  and  trees, 
Music  of  bird  and  brook," 

swimming  and  hunting  and  fishing,  or  gathering 
chips  to  build  his  mother's  fire,  till  he  was  old 
enough  to  swing  the  ax  of  a  pioneer  woodsman. 

With  hard  labor  and  coarse  fare,  his  frame 
grew  tall  and  strong,  fitted  to  bear  great  burdens. 
He  sat  by  the  fireside  of  the  humble,  and  lived 
their  life  until  his  sympathies  were  close  to  all 
mankind.  Struggling  ever  with  adverse  circum- 
stance, he  grew  no  foolish  pride  or  false  ambition. 
He  was  taught  to  depend,  not  on  the  shallow 


26  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

knowledge  of  a  multitude  of  things,  but  rather  on 
the  power  and  value  of  fundamental  truths. 

No  golden  coins  of  knowledge  came  to  him 
fresh  minted  from  the  schools;  he  had  to  dig  the 
metal  for  himself  in  the  mines  of  experience  and 
close  reading,  separate  the  dross  and  weigh  the 
product  in  his  thought.  He  was  strictly  taught 
from  earliest  years  that  simple  honesty,  with 
loving  kindness  and  sincerity,  should  be  his  rule 
of  conduct:  That  he  must  never  compromise 
with  wrong,  or  forget  the  God  Who  made  him. 

And  so,  with  a  clean  heredity  of  God's  own 
choosing,  a  manner  of  training  that  accorded  with 
His  plan,  THE  MAN  WAS  MADE  TO  MEET  THE  HOUR. 


SUPER-GREAT  LEADERS 

IN  America  we  have  had  two,  one  for  the  18th, 
one  for  the  19th  century.  Any  intelligent 
schoolboy  can  name  them  at  once.  In  personality 
very  different,  each  of  these  leaders  in  his  own 
way,  fitting  the  circumstances  of  his  time,  at- 
tained the  height  of  super-greatness.  Each  had 
an  overmastering  conscience,  absolute  honesty, 
love  of  truth  for  its  own  sake,  perfect  courage, 
indomitable  will,  the  self-sacrificing  spirit,  pa- 
tience of  endurance,  supreme  love  of  country,  and 
with  all  an  unfaltering  faith  in  Divine  control  and 
guidance.  With  this  combination  of  qualities, 
each  was  able  to  go  forward,  amid  the  greatest 
difficulties,  and  never  make  a  blunder. 

Why  is  it  that  the  man  considered  great,  will 
almost  certainly  blunder  at  some  critical  moment 
of  his  public  life,  it  may  be  just  once,  so  preventing 
himself  from  attaining  the  highest  niche  of  fame? 
Somewhere  in  the  chain  of  character  is  a  weak 
link,  that  bends  or  breaks  under  stress. 

Wherein  is  the  difference  of  mistake  and 
blunder?  Any  great  man  will  make  mistakes 
necessarily,  because  he  cannot  know  all  the  facts 


28  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

in  relation  to  his  problem.  But  he  may  reason 
accurately  upon  the  facts  understood.  Whenever 
he  fails  to  act  in  accordance  with  known  truth, 
whenever  he  is  swerved  or  turned  from  the 
straight  path  by  some  consideration  of  the  ego, 
he  makes  the  blunder,  since  he  is  not  able  to  elim- 
inate self  from  the  question  he  is  called  upon  to 
decide.  There  is  usually  an  impulse  of  fear  that 
some  harm  may  react  upon  himself  by  the  pur- 
suance of  a  given  course;  that  it  may  interfere 
with  some  desire  or  ambition  of  his  own.  Being 
tempted,  he  yields  a  little  in  the  application  of  a 
fixed  principle,  and  blunders.  He  makes  a  false 
move  when  he  knows  or  should  know  better. 
Remember,  we  are  speaking  of  the  truly  great 
man,  who  is  capable  of  correct  reasoning.  Of 
course,  the  man  who  is  not  big  enough  for  his  job 
cannot  help  blundering  unless  he  is  guided  by 
another. 

The  moment  a  man  in  high  position  loses  sight 
of  the  fact  that  he  should  be  purely  a  servant  of 
the  people,  of  truth,  and  of  righteousness,  and  al- 
lows self  to  enter  the  field  of  vision,  he  cannot  see 
clearly,  and  becomes  an  unsafe  leader. 

Why  did  Napoleon  make  the  blunder  of  a  winter 
campaign  against  Russia?  It  was  a  plain  viola- 
tion of  reason  and  common  sense.  It  seems  not 
to  have  occurred  to  his  mind  that  a  few  sparks  of 


Super-Great  Leaders  29 

fire  might  destroy  the  city  of  refuge.  No  one  may 
question  his  greatness,  but  he  was  evidently 
blinded  by  inordinate  personal  ambition.  This 
made  him  ready  to  sacrifice  without  limit  the  lives 
of  others,  in  order  that  he  might  rise  yet  higher  in 
power,  even  to  the  supreme  control  of  Europe. 

Being  selfish,  inconsiderate  of  the  rights  of 
others,  he  blundered,  where  Washington  or  Lin- 
coln would  have  retained  a  balance  of  mind  and 
purpose.  They  in  his  position  would  have  sought 
the  harmony  and  peace  of  Europe,  with  justice 
for  all  peoples. 


IN  the  time  of  Washington  there  were  a  number 
of  men  who  considered  themselves,  and  were 
thought  by  others  to  be,  equal  or  superior  to  him. 
But  with  hardly  an  exception  those  who  lived  to 
see  his  work  completed  came  to  acknowledge  his 
supremacy  in  the  creation  of  this  government.  A 
similar  statement  holds  good  with  reference  to 
Lincoln.  There  were  very  few,  North  or  South, 
who,  within  a  few  years  following  his  death  would 
have  denied  him  the  place  of  supreme  distinction 
in  the  work  of  preserving  the  Union. 

Even  the  Secretary  of  State,  who  at  one  time 
had  thought  himself  far  greater;  and  that  he 
should  be  "the  power  behind  the  throne,"  came  to 
say:  "He  was  easily  the  leader  of  us  all." 

There  were  a  number  of  great  men,  statesmen 
and  leaders  before  Lincoln's  day,  and  others  con- 
temporaneous with  him,  but  not  one  who  pos- 
sessed so  perfectly  as  he  that  combination  of  all 
the  necessary  qualities  to  make  him  supremely 
great. 

Have  we  had  one  since?  Few  I  think  would 
answer  yes.  One  or  two  have  been  considered, 


Not  Many  Equals  in  History  31 

but  however  great  they  were  it  seems  to  the  writer 
that  they  did  not  possess  the  poise  and  balance 
of  mind,  the  freedom  from  selfness  and  personal 
bias,  possessed  by  Lincoln  and  Washington. 
Indeed  there  have  been  a  number  of  quiet  men  in 
the  presidency,  nothing  striking  or  spectacular 
about  them,  who  were  better  balanced,  more 
reliable  of  judgment  than  the  recent  popular 
idols — elected  or  non-elected. 

Whom  have  we  in  European  history  to  rank 
with  our  two  super-great?  There  have  been  in 
England  a  number  no  doubt,  who  came  near  but 
hardly  quite  to  the  mark.  The  intelligent  Briton 
will  acknowledge  that  he  has  to  go  back  a  thou- 
sand years  to  find  the  only  one  to  whom  is  ac- 
corded the  title  "  Great."  Their  one  sacred  name 
is  Alfred.  In  Holland  we  find  one,  four  hundred 
years  ago,  qualified  beyond  question.  William  of 
Orange  had  equal  wisdom  and  ability,  a  supreme 
love  that  overmastered  every  selfish  motive  or 
consideration;  and  he  too  gave  "the  last  full 
measure  of  devotion,"  as  did  Lincoln.  For  he 
also  was  assassinated  by  the  hand  of  his  enemies. 
And  no  greater  tribute  was  ever  given  to  a  man 
than  this:  "WHEN  HE  DIED  THE  CHILDREN  OF 

HOLLAND  CRIED  IN  THE  STREETS." 


82  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

Do  we  find  another  in  Europe? 

The  writer  does  not  consider  himself  qualified 
to  answer  this  question.  Undoubtedly  the  people 
of  several  nations  might  lay  claim  to  one  or  more 
each,  but  would  the  candidates  bear  measurement 
from  every  point  of  view?  A  number  of  historians 
have  been  asked  for  an  opinion.  One  has  suggested 
Admiral  Coligny  of  France,  or  Mazzini  of  Italy. 
And  Asia?  We  are  only  sure  of  one,  whom  an  y 
biblical  student  will  instantly  name.  There  is 
none  of  any  other  race  to  consider  than  this  leader 
of  Israel.  Do  we  find  Lincoln's  equal  elsewhere? 
At  least  in  one  great  leader  of  Israel  that  any 
biblical  student  will  instantly  name. 

We  have  scant  knowledge  of  the  life  and  per- 
sonality of  Moses,  comparing  him  with  those  who 
lived  within  the  tune  of  printed  records.  But 
without  doubt  he  had  the  same  super-qualities  of 
leadership,  making  due  allowance  for  the  tune  in 
which  he  lived.  First,  he  killed  a  man  who  was 
oppressing  one  of  his  people.  Then  he  fled  to 
save  his  life.  He  seems  to  have  been  utterly  dis- 
trustful of  himself  after  that,  brooding  with  his 
conscience  forty  years.  It  took  a  miracle  to  drive 
him  back  to  the  work  laid  out  for  him,  and  mir- 
acles to  sustain  him  afterward.  But  he  performed 
the  most  difficult  task  perhaps  ever  given  to  a 
man  in  this  world.  He  saved  a  nation  from  its 


Not  Many  Equals  in  History  33 

enemies — and  from  itself.  He  set  going  on  the 
earth  an  energizing  force  of  inconceivable  power. 

He  appears  to  have  had  an  all  absorbing  love 
for  his  people,  with  complete  self-surrender. 
When  his  work  was  done  he  would  not  even  be 
present  at  his  own  funeral.  He  would  not  allow 
his  bones  to  be  made  the  object  of  superstitious 
veneration.  He  went  off  and  died  by  himself — 
"And  no  man  knoweth  his  grave  to  this  day." 

Had  they  known,  a  foolish  people  would  have 
made  the  place  another  Mecca  of  idolatrous  pil- 
grimage and  worship. 

No  doubt  the  Almighty  has  had  his  thousands 
— men  and  women — qualified  of  heart  and  soul 
to  be  among  the  super-great;'  but  only  a  few  stand 
out  to  human  vision. 


WHO  WAS  LINCOLN'S  BEST  FRIEND? 

IN  order  to  answer  this  question  it  is  necessary  to 
relate  briefly  one  of  the  stories  of  the  Civil  War. 

More  than  half  the  people  of  the  Border  States 
were  loyal  to  the  Union.  A  majority  of  these 
had  been  opposed  to  Lincoln  politically;  they 
had  been  in  a  way  pro-slavery;  many  even  were 
slave-holders.  The  greatest  internal  diplomatic 
problem  of  the  administration  was  to  keep  these 
people  solid  for  the  Union,  and  to  prevent  their 
respective  States  from  being  dragged  bodily  into 
the  Southern  Confederacy.  It  required  the 
leadership  of  a  very  wise  and  patient  man  to  ac- 
complish this  task.  No  matter  what  he  did  he 
would  arouse  more  or  less  opposition,  and  make 
for  himself  enemies. 

In  all  the  border  states  except  one,  the  lines 
were  clearly  drawn  between  the  two  parties  of 
Union  and  Secession;  there  were  practically  no 
sub-factions.  The  exceptional  state  was  Mis- 
souri. That  state  had  never  been — is  not  to  this 
day,  homogeneous.  It  had  the  misfortune  to 
come  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state  under  terms 
of  the  "Missouri  Compromise."  Looking  at  the 


Who  Was  Lincoln's  Best  Friend?        35 

map  you  discover  that  it  was  almost  surrounded 
by  free  states  or  territories;  East  by  Illinois, 
North  by  Iowa,  West  by  Kansas  and  Nebraska. 

The  slave-holding  element  was  dominant  in  the 
river  counties,  with  exception  of  a  strong  union 
element  in  St.  Louis.  Northward,  settlers  came 
chiefly  from  free  states.  Most  of  these  were  bit- 
terly pro-Union.  In  other  parts  were  conservative 
Unionists,  and  everywhere  a  floating,  irrespon- 
sible class,  who  engaged  in  irregular  warfare  and 
robbery,  a  disgrace  to  the  cause  they  ostensibly 
favored.  The  conservative  and  radical  Unionists 
could  never  agree  upon  anything  either  of  local 
or  national  policy. 

Under  the  impulsive  leading  of  General  Fre- 
mont, who  was  both  impractical  and  insubordi- 
nate, the  radicals  of  Missouri  were  stirred  almost  to 
a  state  of  frenzy.  Unfortunately  a  large  element 
of  Lincoln's  own  party  in  the  North  sympathized 
with  them,  blaming  him  chiefly  for  ,the  discord 
and  violence  prevalent  throughout  the  state. 
Lincoln  believed  that  to  yield  to  their  dictation 
would  lose  to  him  the  other  border  states,  if  not 
Missouri  itself.  Trying  to  pacify  the  various 
elements,  Mr.  Lincoln  appointed  General  Scho- 
field  commandant  of  the  Southwest  department, 
a  man  of  good  judgment  as  he  believed.  But  the 
radicals  of  Missouri  were  bitterly  dissatisfied. 


86  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

They  wanted  Fremont  again  or  some  one  like  him. 
They  sent  a  committee  of  seventy  to  Washington 
to  interview  the  President  and  to  demand  per- 
emptorily the  removal  of  Schofield,  and  a  com- 
plete change  of  policy.  The  committee  was  ac- 
claimed all  over  the  North,  feted  and  dined  all 
along  the  route,  and  in  Washington  itself.  The 
spokesman  told  Lincoln  to  his  face  that  blood 
would  be  upon  his  head  for  the  dire  consequences 
that  would  follow  his  refusal  of  their  demands. 

They  said  bitter  things  that  cut  him  to  the 
heart,  and  tears  coursed  the  wrinkles  of  his  care- 
worn cheeks. 

He  explained  his  position  to  them,  calmly, 
kindly,  but  would  not  yield  to  their  demands; 
though  he  knew  the  whole  North  would  be  aflame 
on  the  morrow  with  denunciation  of  his  course. 

He  concluded  with  this  statement: 

"You  gentlemen  must  remember  that  in  per- 
forming the  duties  of  the  office  I  hold,  I  must  rep- 
resent no  one  section  of  the  Union,  but  all,  in  trying 
to  maintain  the  supremacy  of  the  government. 

"I  desire  to  so  conduct  the  affairs  of  this  ad- 
ministration that  if,  at  the  end,  when  I  come  to 
lay  down  the  reins  of  power,  I  have  lost  every 
other  friend  on  earth,  I  shall  have  at  least  one 
friend  left,  AND  THAT  FRIEND  SHALL  BE  THE  ONE 

DOWN  INSIDE  OF  ME." 


HIS  CONSCIENCE 

WHO  but  Lincoln  would  have  thought  of 
expressing  conscience  in  such  homely  fash- 
ion and  so  effectively? — "The  friend  that  is  down 
inside  of  me." 

Though  he  lost  every  other  friend  on  earth,  he 
meant  to  keep  that  one  to  the  end. 

Lincoln  was  pre-eminently  a  friendly  man,  and 
possessed  an  unusual  aptitude  for  making  friends : 
and  no  one  appreciated  more  than  he  the  approval 
and  confidence  of  his  friends,  but  of  all  friendships 
the  one  he  prized  most  was  that  of  "the  friend 
down  inside" — his  Conscience. 

The  story  is  told  that  shortly  after  he  became 
president,  Mrs.  Lincoln  brought  to  him  a  current 
report  that  Seward  was  the  power  behind  the 
throne.  He  replied  emphatically:  "I  may  not 
rule  myself,  but  certainly  Seward  shall  not  rule 
me.  The  only  ruler  is  my  conscience — following 
God  in  it — those  men  will  have  to  learn  that  yet." 

ATTENTION!  Boys  and  girls,  young  men  and 
maidens,  at  home,  in  school,  in  employment. 
Attention,  too,  employers,  parents  and  teachers. 
How  many  are  ready  to  give  wholeheartedly  as 


88  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

Lincoln  did  the  first  place  of  friendship  to  Con- 
science, "the  friend  that  is  down  inside"  of  you? 

Do  you  believe  truly  that  conscience — truth, 
honesty — can  be  depended  on  and  will  not  fail 
to  win  the  greatest  self-respect,  the  highest  satis- 
faction and  success? 

When  others,  claiming  to  be  friends,  or  our  own 
desires,  appeal  to  us  to  do  this  or  that,  are  we  not 
often  tempted  to  say  to  the  inside  friend:  "Keep 
still,  we  want  no  interference  from  you?" 

By  listening  to  and  obeying  this  inside  friend 
Lincoln  lost  for  a  time  many  friends — or  followers. 
He  made  for  a  while  bitter  enemies.  But  in  the 
end  he  bound  to  himself  all  friends  worth  having, 
and  today  he  holds  the  faith  and  confidence  of 
mankind  and  will  hold  it  while  words  are  printed 
and  people  read  in  any  language. 

Suppose  that  he  had  yielded  to  those  clamoring 
other  "friends"  and  done  as  they  wished,  instead 
of  following  strictly  the  advice  of  conscience,  or 
suppose  he  had  once  permitted  a  spirit  of  selfish- 
ness or  of  doubtful  policy  to  rule  his  actions,  where 
would  he  now  stand  by  comparison? 

A  great  element  of  his  strength  lay  in  his  hu- 
mility. He  had  little  faith  in  human  nature  that 
was  not  held  close  to  the  divine.  He  said  once: 
"I  have  always  regarded  Peter  as  sincere  when 
he  said  he  would  never  deny  his  Master.  Yet  he 


His  Conscience  89 

did  deny  him.  Now  I  think  I  shall  keep  my  word 
and  maintain  the  stand  I  have  taken;  but  I  must 
remember  that  I  am  liable  to  infirmity,  and  may 
fall." 

But  Lincoln  had  behind  him  what  Peter  did  not 
have,  the  life-long  habit  of  standing  firm,  obeying 
under  all  circumstances  the  voice  of  that  friend 
inside. 


HIS  HEREDITY 

WHENCE  came  those  qualities  of  mind  and 
heart  that  made  him  super-great,  that 
caused  this  spring  of  world-wide  influence  to  flow? 
Not  from  inoculation,  the  special  food  he  ate, 
the  kind  of  house  he  lived  in,  or  from  the  clothes 
he  wore.  He  had  them  by  inheritance.  No  river 
can  rise  higher  than  its  source  or  escape  the  waters 
flowing  into  it.  The  lower  Mississippi  represents 
two  parent  streams  of  very  different  color.  Each 
one  is  fed  by  innumerable  tributaries.  So  it  is 
with  heredity.  Tell  us  quickly,  reader,  how  many 
great-great-grandparents  have  you?  Who  were 
they  all?  Tell  us  about  them,  where  they  lived 
and  what  they  did.  Come  nearer,  one  generation, 
how  much  do  you  know? 

We  know  the  stream  we  navigate  but  not  its 
many  sources.  We  know  the  man,  or  think  we 
do;  yet  never  entirely,  with  his  deeper,  hidden 
currents.  His  parents  as  a  rule  we  do  not  know, 
or  but  imperfectly.  It  is  not  their  fault  nor  his, 
and  may  be  our  misfortune.  There  is  one  truth, 
however,  beyond  question,  the  man  but  repre- 
sents the  traits  that  flowed  into  him  through  them. 


His  Heredity  41 

Essentially  their  qualities  and  those  of  their 
forebears  are  his  in  a  new  combination.  They  are 
not  new-created,  but  continued. 

As  in  a  stream,  new  channels  may  be  opened 
for  the  waters,  a  pressure  given  this  way  or  that, 
and  new  uses  made  of  its  power;  so  in  the  individ- 
ual we  have  hereditary  force,  plus  training  and 
direction. 

Assuming  that  beyond  all  this  there  may  be 
given  to  the  man  to  manifest  on  earth  a  quality 
divine,  some  higher  force  of  the  Universal  Spirit, 
even  then  his  own  receptiveness  depends  upon  the 
preparation  of  his  being  by  inheritance. 

Of  course  it  is  a  mystery.  "Why,"  we  ask,  "are 
children  of  the  same  heredity  so  different  in  ap- 
pearance and  mentality?"  We  cannot  tell.  The 
waters  of  the  stream  have  come  from  many 
sources,  and  apparently  cannot  mingle  twice  hi 
the  same  proportions. 

Here  is  a  truth  that  is  usually  forgotten  in  the 
study  of  a  man's  heredity:  that  primary  and 
essential  traits  of  character  are  not  to  be  measured 
by  external  circumstances, — amount  and  kind  of 
one's  possessions,  place  of  residence  or  surround- 
ings; neither  by  education  in  the  common  use 
of  the  term,  i.e.  schooling  or  book  knowledge. 
They  are  manifested  in  small  affairs  rather  than 
great;  in  the  simplest  relations  of  home,  between 


42  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

parents  and  children,  brothers  and  sisters;  in 
common  neighborliness,  ordinary  labor,  business 
and  service.  Yet,  strangely  enough,  people  per- 
sist continually  in  appraising  character  by  circum- 
stances, one's  vocation  and  the  mere  possession 
of  things.  They  are  inclined  to  judge  harshly  of 
those  who  fail  to  achieve  success  according  to 
their  standards  of  success,  even  when  they  know 
little  or  nothing  of  the  conditions  under  which  the 
person  struggled  whom  they  judge. 

How  very  foolish  were  some  of  the  first  bi- 
ographers of  Lincoln,  and  others  who  followed, 
copying  without  thought  their  ignorant  state- 
ments regarding  his  heredity.  They  knew  little 
or  nothing  about  the  matter,  but,  feeling  that  they 
must  say  something  chose  to  say  things  disparag- 
ing. Apparently  they  thought  to  make  their 
subject  seem  the  greater  by  belittling  those  to 
whom  he  owed  his  being.  Time,  with  careful 
investigation  is  sweeping  to  the  rubbish  heap  each 
unworthy  theory  and  statement  of  Herndon  and 
his  imitators. 

So  far,  in  every  stream  of  Lincoln's  ancestry, 
we  find  the  waters  clear  and  sweet,  as  if  they  flowed 
direct  from  mountain  springs.  We  have  not  dis- 
covered one  progenitor  unworthy,  measured  by 
true  standards, — steadfast  courage,  honesty  and 
purity. 


WAS  HE  AN  EDUCATED  MAN? 

MOST  people,  if  asked  about  Lincoln's  educa- 
tion would  say  probably,  that  he  had  very 
little.    What  they  would  have  in  mind  would  be 
the  instruction  of  schools,  which  is  only  a  minor 
part  of  training. 

We  may  sum  up  the  definitions  given  of  educa- 
tion by  a  number  of  dictionaries  with  this  state- 
ment: THAT  COURSE  OF  TRAINING,  PHYSICAL, 
MENTAL,  MORAL  AND  RELIGIOUS,  WHICH  FITS  THE 
INDIVIDUAL  FOR  THE  WORK  BEFORE  HIM  IN  LIFE, 
AND  FOR  THE  GREATEST  USEFULNESS. 

In  detail,  education  cannot  be  the  same  for  any 
two  people,  by  reason  of  differing  capacities  and 
requirements.  It  is  on  the  whole  an  individual 
matter,  the  result  desired  being  the  fitting  in  of  a 
man  to  his  best  place. 

How  can  we  determine  the  value  of  a  man's 
educatior  except  by  the  outcome  of  his  life? 

With  regard  to  Abraham  Lincoln,  it  is  conceded 
that  he  was  one  of  the  very  few  super-great  men 
of  history.  By  what  cause?  First,  of  course, 
natural  endowment.  Second,  education,  i.e.  the 
training  that  drew  out  his  natural  powers.  Now 
the  question  is;  What  could  have  been  added  to 


44  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

Lincoln's  education  that  would  have  made  him 
greater  than  he  was?  Are  we  sure  that  we  could 
suggest  one  thing  in  the  way  of  schooling  that 
would  have  increased  his  usefulness?  His  life  was 
full.  Could  anything  have  been  added  without 
subtracting  something  of  possibly  greater  value? 
What  experience  of  Lincoln's  life  should  have  been 
left  out  of  the  educational  scheme, — for  him? 

Here  is  a  man  upon  the  highest  mountain  peak 
of  fame,  with  few  for  company.  Each  of  those 
climbed  by  his  own  path,  providentially  deter- 
mined. Who  shall  say  that  one  of  them  should 
have  deviated  from  the  trail?  Each  had  his  own 
education,  physical,  mental,  moral  and  religious, 
that  fitted  him  for  the  work  that  lay  before  him 
and  the  greatest  usefulness. 

PHYSICAL  EDUCATION:   WORK  AND  PLAY 

"When  I  was  eight  years  old,  being  large  for 
my  age,  an  ax  was  put  into  my  hand,  and  from 
that  till  within  my  twenty-third  year  I  was  almost 
constantly  handling  that  most  useful  instrument; 
less  of  course  in  plowing  and  harvesting  seasons." 
(Lincoln's  Autobiography.) 

Twelve  growing  years,  of  toilsome  labor  full; 

A  towering  stalwart  form; 
Of  fibre  knit  like  ironwood  or  oak, 

To  battle  with  the  storm. 


Was  He  an  Educated  Man?  45 

Sometimes  a  holiday.  We  see  an  original  Boy 
Scout,  walking  with  one  or  more  companions  over 
the  hills,  eighteen  miles,  to  the  Ohio  River,  sleep- 
ing on  the  ground,  boating,  fishing,  taking  home  a 
goodly  string  hung  over  his  shoulder.  Near  home, 
there  was  the  creek  and  swimming-pool.  He  and  his 
boy  friends  had  all  the  essentials  of  a  gymnasium. 
There  was  ground,  plenty  of  it,  and  no  signs,  "Keep 
off  the  grass."  There  was  the  original  horizontal 
bar — an  extending  limb  of  a  tree,  just  high  enough 
to  reach  with  a  standing  jump ;  the  swinging-bar, 
— a  grapevine  somewhere  hanging  down ;  the  best 
climbing  posts  in  the  world, — smooth-bark  hickorys 
or  poplars,  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  without  a  limb. 

They  had  wrestling,  running  and  jumping 
matches,  played  town  ball  and  "quates"  (quoits). 
They  had  a  lot  of  fun,  those  boys;  they  could 
work  when  they  worked  and  play  when  they 
played,  and  shout  and  sing  and  laugh  without 
disturbance  to  their  neighbors.  All  grew  up  with 
physical  strength  and  power  of  endurance,  Abra- 
ham most  of  all. 

Don't  ever  waste  your  sympathies,  my  young 
gentleman  or  lady,  pitying  the  boy  who  works  in 
field  or  shop,  or  the  girl  who  helps  her  mother  in 
the  house  or  garden — or  her  father  in  the  field. 
Given  beside  some  opportunity  for  play  the  work 
is  made  half  play.  If  you  have  pity  to  spare,  give 


46  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

it  to  the  boy  or  girl  who  doesn't  have  to  work; 
if  you  have  scorn,  bestow  it  on  the  lazy. 

Hard  work,  in  reasonable  amount,  has  no  small 
value  aside  from  physical  development.  It  car- 
ries with  it  and  increases  self-respect,  the  sense  of 
usefulness,  the  pride  of  accomplishment.  The  boy 
who  follows  the  furrow  has  time  for  thinking.  The 
while  you  see  him  in  the  field,  walking  barefoot 
behind  his  team,  his  mind  may  be  engaged  di- 
gesting the  book  he  read  last  night.  While  de- 
veloping his  body  he  may  be  also  exercising  a 
brain  that  will  some  day  make  him  a  leader  of  men. 

With  all  his  work  Lincoln  never  forgot  how  to 
play.  When  he  had  become  a  distinguished  lawyer 
and  statesman,  after  he  had  been  in  Congress,  he 
played  ball  with  the  young  men  and  boys.  He 
often  took  a  Saturday  afternoon  off,  going  to  the 
woods  followed  by  a  troop  of  children  who  would 
do  as  he  had  done  when  young,  run  and  explore, 
climb  trees,  gather  nuts,  and  study  the  habits  of 
animals  and  birds. 

During  the  war,  even,  when  he  was  borne  down 
by  anxiety  and  care,  it  is  told  that,  out  at  the 
country  place  of  Mr.  Blair  he  joined  the  boys  in  a 
game  of  ball  and  ran  the  bases,  laughing  and 
shouting  with  the  rest. 

He  could  not  have  been  the  man  he  was  without 
the  education  of  work — and  play. 


EDUCATION  OF  PATRIOTISM 

TOVE  of  country  was  among  the  first  things 
I—/  taught  to  Abraham.  He  tells  the  story  that 
when  he  was  very  small,  one  day  upon  the  road 
he  met  a  man  who  told  him  he  had  been  a  soldier. 
"Immediately,"  he  says,  "I  gave  him  whatever  I 
had  in  my  hand,  a  piece  of  bread  perhaps,  because 
I  had  been  taught  by  my  parents  to  honor  the 
defenders  of  my  country."  They  did  not  fail  to 
tell  him,  we  may  be  sure,  that  he  was  named  for 
his  grandfather  Abraham — killed  by  the  Indians, 
when  he  was  laboring  to  open  a  farm  in  the  forest. 
This  grandfather  had  come  with  Daniel  Boone, 
his  friend,  or  closely  following  him,  to  explore 
Kentucky  just  before  the  close  of  the  Revolution- 
ary War.  He  had  been  a  Captain  of  militia  in 
Rockingham  County,  Virginia,  as  records  show. 
His  brother  Jacob  was  a  Lieutenant,  present  at 
the  surrender  of  Cornwallis.  This  Abraham  had 
been  named  for  his  uncle,  a  man  distinguished  in 
Pennsylvania,  Abraham  Lincoln  of  Berks  County. 
An  interesting  account  of  him  is  given  in  the  his- 
tory of  that  County,  with  a  reproduction  of  his 
signature.  It  resembles  strikingly  that  of  the 


48  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

president.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Legislature, 
the  State  Constitutional  Convention  and  of  the 
Convention  that  ratified  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States. 

Had  our  Abraham's  grandfather  lived  to  old 
age  he  might  have  told  his  son  and  grandson  many 
stories  that  were  buried  with  him  in  the  forest. 
Dennis  tells  that  he  asked  the  mother  what  the 
baby's  name  would  be.  "Abraham  of  course," 
she  answered,  "for  his  grandfather,  who  was 
killed  by  the  Indians.  He  was  a  mighty  smart 
man  and  not  afraid  of  anything."  This  descrip- 
tion is  not  ill-fitting  to  his  grandson. 

The  pioneers  had  almost  no  records  of  their 
ancestry  but  all  they  had  of  legendary  lore  they 
told  to  Abraham,  of  brave  and  patriotic  forefathers 
and  mothers.  And  the  first  books  that  Abraham 
read  besides  the  Bible  were  of  patriotism.  As 
elsewhere  noted  in  this  volume,  nearly  fifty  years 
later  Lincoln  told  the  senators  of  the  New  Jersey 
legislature:  "Away  back  in  my  childhood  the 
earliest  days  of  my  being  able  to  read,  I  got  hold 
of  Weems'  "Life  of  Washington"  .  .  .  and  I  re- 
member, the  accounts  there  given  of  the  battle- 
fields and  struggles  for  the  liberties  of  the  coun- 
try. I  recollect  thinking,  then,  boy  though  I  was, 
that  there  must  have  been  something  more  than 
common  that  these  men  struggled  for." 


Education  of  Patriotism  49 

Aye,  "the  thoughts  of  youth  are  long,  long 
thoughts,"  Lincoln  would  not  have  been  the  man 
he  was  without  his  early  education  of  patriotism. 


EDUCATION  OF  TOOLS 

A  man  was  famous  according  as  he  had  lifted 
up  axes  upon  the  thick  trees. — Psalm  74r-5. 

"That  most  useful  instrument,"  Lincoln  wrote 
in  his  Autobiography.  Yes,  and  most  educational 
has  been  the  Ax.  There  was  never  its  equal 
among  tools  for  a  complete  exerciser  of  the  body, 
the  physical  development  of  a  man.  It  can  be  of 
any  size,  from  that  of  a  giant  to  the  hatchet  for  a 
child.  As  Abraham  grew  so  did  the  ax  he  used, 
until  with  the  swing  of  his  long  arms  the  tree  was 
down  before  another  lad  would  be  half  through. 
Without  the  ax  there  would  have  been  no  Lincoln 
as  we  know  him,  no  "Rail-splitter"  to  lead  his 
party.  His  father  had  "the  best  set  of  tools  in  the 
county,"  it  was  said,  and  Abraham  learned  their 
use.  The  pioneer  did  most  of  his  own  black- 
smithing  and  repairing,  sometimes  making  plows 
and  harrows.  Hence  it  was  that  Lincoln  when  hi 
doubt  later  as  to  what  he  should  do,  "thought  of 
being  a  blacksmith,"  as  he  states.*  They  made 

*In  Tarbell's  "Life  of  Lincoln,"  Vol.  I,  there  is  a  picture  of  a 
walnut  cabinet,  made  by  Abraham — "well  put  together,"  pos- 
sessed, about  1895  by  J.  W.  Wartmain,  Evansville,  Ind. 


50  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

also  common  furniture,  spinning-wheels  and  looms, 
— coffins  many,  cutting  boards  from  the  log  with 
whipsaws  before  there  were  sawmills  near.  He 
was  taught  to  be  resourceful,  meeting  every  acci- 
dent or  emergency  without  thought  of  failure. 
When  later,  on  the  Sangamon,  the  flatboat  stuck 
upon  a  dam,  he  contrived  an  apparatus  for  lifting 
it  over.  He  had  his  invention  patented,  the  model 
of  which  may  still  be  seen.  No  doubt  he  dreamed 
that  he  should  make  some  money  from  it,  not 
knowing  how  soon  railroads  would  be  built,  and 
do  away  with  transportation  on  small  streams. 
As  evidence  of  Abraham's  mechanical  skill  and 
accuracy,  consider  that  after  the  store  "  winked 
out"  he  "procured  a  compass  and  chain,  studied 
Flint  and  Gibson  (on  surveying)  a  little,  and  went 
at  it."  "This  procured  bread  and  kept  body  and 
soul  together,"  for  some  months,  till  he  was 
elected  to  the  legislature.  His  surveys  are  on 
record  and  have  never  been  in  question. 

During  the  war  he  studied  closely  the  mechanism 
of  firearms,  making  himself  an  expert  on  the  sub- 
ject and  became  capable  of  criticizing  new  inven- 
tions offered  to  the  War  Department. 

Yes,  Lincoln  could  not  have  been  the  man  he 
was  without  the  education  of  tools,  in  popular 
phrase,  "Manual  Training." 


EDUCATION  BY  EXCLUSION 

THE  doctors  have  a  method  of  diagnosis,  as  they 
tell  us, ' '  by  exclusion . ' '  The  condition  present 
may  arise,  we  will  say,  from  one  of  ten  causes. 
Selecting  one,  they  find  that  there  is  a  conclusive 
reason  why  it  does  not  apply  to  the  case  in  hand. 
It  is  therefore  discarded,  leaving  nine;  and  so 
the  process  continues  till  only  one  is  left,  which 
must  be  the  one.  If  there  has  been  no  fault  of 
listing  or  of  elimination,  the  conclusion  is  as  sure 
as  that  two  and  two  make  four. 

Ten  thousand  worlds  there  are  within  this  world 
we  tread,  each  with  a  million  facts  and  questions. 
One  can  master  but  a  few. 

In  education  the  human  tendency  seems  to  be 
to  consider  only  inclusion.  But  exclusion, — deter- 
mining what  not  to  learn,  is  quite  as  important. 

In  the  education  of  young  Lincoln  the  Almighty 
saw  to  it  that  he  was  not  compelled  to  learn  a  lot 
of  things  unrelated  to  the  work  that  lay  before 
him.  He  had  some  clear  ideas  himself  about  ex- 
clusion, as  the  following  letter  indicates : 


52  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

Nov.  11,  1863. 
HON.  SECRETARY  OF  WAR: 

DEAR  SIR: 

I  personally  wish  Jacob  Freese,  of  New  Jersey,  to  be  ap- 
pointed Colonel  for  a  colored  regiment,  and  this  regardless  of 
whether  he  can  tell  the  exact  shade  of  Julius  Caesar's  hair. 

Lincoln  knew  colored  men,  and  the  sort  of  manage- 
ment needed  to  make  soldiers  of  them.  He  knew 
Freese,  and  thought  him  fit  for  the  job.  That  was 
enough.  What  was  the  use  of  putting  him  through 
an  examination  on  a  lot  of  subjects  taught  in  books 
or  schools? 

We  have  had  a  president  since  Lincoln  who  had 
a  wide  range  of  knowledge  on  very  many  subjects 
and  there  was  no  limit  to  his  writing  or  speech. 
He  was,  therefore,  necessarily  hurried,  and  some- 
tunes  inaccurate.  With  a  lot  of  exclusion,  and 
more  intensive  inclusion,  we  hazard  the  statement 
that  although  he  was  great  he  might  have  been 
greater;  and  almost  certainly  he  would  have 
lived  longer. 

A  magnate  of  the  great  steel  industry  was  sit- 
ting in  a  dental  chair  in  a  Chicago  office.  Looking 
out,  he  saw  near  by  a  big  sign,  "  BUSINESS  coi> 
LEGE!"  He  snorted,  then  expressed  his  mind: 
"I've  tried  them  out — their  graduates,"  he  said, 
"in  our  office  we  have  wasted  a  lot  of  time  unlearn- 
ing them  of  what  they  got  there,  and  trying  to 
teach  them  what  they  ought  to  know.  Not  one 


Education  by  Exclusion  53 

has  made  a  success  with  us.  I'll  take  the  green 
boy  every  time,  whose  mind  has  not  been  clogged 
by  a  lot  of  misfitting  ideas.  Their  system  may  be 
of  value  for  some  kinds  of  business,  but  not  for 
ours." 

A  certain  biographer  has  had  almost  hysteria 
over  the  fact  that  Abraham  was  unable  to  attend 
the  school  of  Robert  Dale  Owen  and  his  associates 
at  New  Harmony,  Indiana,  mourning  for  his  lost 
opportunity  of  an  education.  Lincoln  told  Leon- 
ard Swett  the  reason  as  they  were  riding  together 
in  a  buggy  on  "the  circuit."  His  father,  with 
true  Lincolnian  simplicity  as  regards  business 
matters,  had  signed  a  note  with  a  neighbor  and 
in  the  end  had  it  to  pay.  Abraham  gave  up 
going  to  school  and  worked  out  for  a  money  wage 
to  assist  in  paying  this  debt.  He  told  the  story 
cheerfully,  with  no  expression  of  regret,  for  he 
had  come  later  to  have  little  respect  for  the 
school.  While  he  was  working  for  Crawford  and 
others  he  was  not  filling  his  mind  with  matter  to 
be  unlearned  afterward. 

No,  Lincoln  would  not  have  been  the  man  he 
was  without  the  blessing  of  exclusion  in  his  early 
days. 


HE  WENT  TO  SCHOOL— TO  HIMSELF 

NOT  an  educated  man?  No  schooling?  He 
went  to  school  continually.  He  had  many 
teachers.  He  found  them  everywhere,  men, 
women  and  children  with  whom  he  associated 
on  equal  terms,  being  humble  and  willing  to 
learn  from  the  very  least  of  them.  Best  of  all 
he  went  to  school  to  himself.  He  grew  up  with 
his  teacher,  and  no  teacher  was  ever  more  exacting. 
Having  only  one  pupil  who  was  ever  in  hand,  he 
could  exercise  discipline  as  severely  as  he  chose. 
The  pupil  could  never  play  hooky,  or  shirk  his 
task  without  the  teacher  knowing  it.  And  the 
teacher  was  so  honest  he  would  not  allow  the 
pupil  the  least  self-indulgence  that  would  inter- 
fere with  his  true  education.  He  was  from  the 
first  determined  to  make  a  man  of  him.  And  the 
pupil's  mother  had  told  him  many  times:  "Abe, 
learn  all  you  can.  Make  a  man  of  yourself." 
Once  she  said:  "You've  just  as  good  blood  in 
your  veins  as  Washington  had,  and  you  can  rise 
in  the  world  as  he  did."  The  reporter  says:  "I 
thought  she  was  stretchin'  it  some."  But  she  was 
not. 


He  Went  to  school — to  Himself         55 

Very  early  this  teacher,  Himself,  laid  down 
certain  rules.  The  first  was:  " Whatever  you  do, 
do  thoroughly."  "If  a  book  is  not  worth  studying 
thoroughly  it  is  not  worth  reading  at  all.  What- 
ever subject  you  begin  with,  master  it  completely 
before  you  quit."  And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  in 
his  later  life  the  pupil  wrote:  "I  am  never  satis- 
fied when  I  am  handling  a  thought  till  I  have 
bounded  it  north — and  south — and  east — and 
west."  In  other  words,  he  went  all  around  it  to 
see  where  it  connected;  and  then  when  he  used  it 
he  would  make  no  mistake  in  statement  or  argu- 
ment. This  rule  of  the  teacher,  "Be  thorough," 
made  him  careful,  determined  to  get  at  the  exact 
truth  of  a  matter,  to  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less : 
then,  with  every  step  he  took  he  was  on  safe 
ground. 

Under  this  rule,  the  pupil  developed  his  mind 
just  as  he  did  his  body,  by  steady,  continued 
application. 

With  only  a  few  books,  the  teacher  was  able  to 
give  his  pupil  the  fundamentals,  the  foundation 
of  a  thorough  education,  i.e.,  the  training  which 
"fitted  him  for  the  work  before  him  in  life,  and  the 
greatest  usefulness." 

Now  this  rule  of  Lincoln's  teacher,  thorough- 
ness, is  the  one  that  any  boy  or  girl  must  learn 
and  follow  if  he  or  she  is  going  to  acquire  an  edu- 


56  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

cation  worth  while.  Above  all  things  the  teacher 
and  pupil  being  one,  it  means  self-control.  That 
was  the  most  valuable  asset,  probably,  that 
Lincoln  acquired  in  going  to  school  to  Himself. 

Lincoln  learned  that  he  should  not  speak  or 
act  on  mere  impulse:  that  before  doing  things  he 
should  have  thought  out  what  the  results  of  doing 
might  be;  or  what  effect  the  word  spoken  might 
have. 


HE  SPECIALIZED 

QUITE  unconsciously  at  first,  in  going  to 
school  to  himself,  Lincoln  specialized  in  his 
education.  Both  by  choice  and  necessity  he  was 
narrowed  down  to  the  two  great  subjects  most 
important  for  "the  work  that  lay  before  him  in 
life."  He  could  hardly  have  branched  off  on 
other  lines  if  so  inclined.  He  had  no  books  on 
Ichthyology,  ornithology,  or  entomology,  and  could 
not  have  chosen  to  devote  his  life  to  the  study  of 
beetle-wings  or  the  habits  of  toads. 

So  the  first  subject  that  seems  to  have  engrossed 
his  attention  was  one  he  could  study  chiefly  with- 
out books.  That  was  HUMAN  NATURE.  From  the 
very  start  he  seems  to  have  taken  deep  interest 
in  People.  He  just  loved  folks,  folks  of  all  sorts 
who  were  decent.  He  had  much  faith  in  them, 
too.  There  were  only  a  few  that  he  looked  upon 
with  suspicion,  and  toward  none  did  he  have  hate 
or  ill  feeling.  In  this  he  was  like  his  parents,  who 
were  neighbor-loving  folk.  All  the  people  the  boy 
knew  were  of  the  " common"  sort.  They  were 
not  poverty  stricken,  like  some  in  cities,  not  in 
actual  want,  not  starving,  but  in  very  moderate 


58  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

circumstances.  They  owned  their  homes  for  the 
most  part,  had  some  land,  with  the  bare  necessi- 
ties of  life,  few  if  any  luxuries.  And  the  most  im- 
portant part  of  Abraham's  education  was  in  the 
study  of  these  people — their  thoughts,  their  emo- 
tions and  motives.  Later,  he  said,  he  thought 
God  must  love  the  common  people  most,  He  had 
made  so  many  of  them.  And  all  through  life  there 
was  continued  the  study  of  this  special  subject. 
Practically  all  the  books  he  ever  read  had  a  bearing 
directly  upon  this.  Why  read  Shakespeare?  Be- 
cause he  was  the  greatest  specialist  on  human 
nature,  his  Works  the  greatest  text  book,  aside 
from  the  Bible,  on  that  subject.  Therefore  Abra- 
ham the  teacher,  chose  for  Abraham,  the  pupil, 
these  two  volumes  that  should  be  always  at  hand, 
on  table  or  desk.  There  were  many  other  books, 
of  course,  and  periodicals,  but  all  were  subsidiary 
to  these,  contributory  to  the  same  education, 
bearing  on  the  specialty.  And  there  was  no 
limit  to  the  term  of  school,  no  vacations. 


HIS  SECOND  SPECIAL  COURSE 

THE  second  special  course  of  Lincoln's  educa- 
tion, was  that  of  The  Political  History  of  the 
United  States.  This  study  began,  according  to  his 
own  testimony,  very  early — "away  back  in  my 
childhood,  the  earliest  days  of  my  being  able  to 
read."  He  had  begun,  even  then,  to  go  to  school 
to  himself  with  the  aid  of  printed  teachers. 
Weems'  "Life  of  Washington"  was  his  "Primer" 
and  "First  Reader."  This  course  of  study  con- 
tinued without  intermission  to  the  day  of  his 
death. 

It  fitted  in  so  closely  with  the  course  on  human 
nature,  that  one  could  scarcely  find  a  line  dividing 
them.  As  he  came  to  know  more  and  more  people, 
from  the  pent-in  forest  homes  of  Kentucky  and 
Indiana  forth  to  the  wide  sweep  of  western 
prairies,  there  grew  within  his  mind  the  larger 
vision  of  his  country.  Those  with  whom  he  formed 
acquaintance  in  neighborhood  life  or  on  the  Cir- 
cuit, court-room  or  legislative  hall,  increasing 
audiences  upon  the  field  in  great  campaigns; — 
these  all  became  to  him  the  types  of  people  every- 
where, his  fellow  citizens  of  the  Union,  These 


60  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

common  people  were  to  him  as  brethren  who  with 
their  forefathers,  pioneers  of  progress,  had  built 
the  nation.  Upon  their  patriotism,  strength  and 
courage,  the  perpetuity  of  our  Government  must 
depend.  By  this  thinking  there  developed  in  his 
soul  an  ever  deepening  sense  of  the  oneness  and 
indivisibility  of  his  country,  a  passionate  love  for 
it  as  a  whole. 

We  have  no  record  that  he  ever  read  through  a 
history  of  the  United  States  or  pursued  a  syste- 
matic course  marked  out  by  anybody.  He  took 
his  own  course,  as  expressed  by  himself  with 
reference  to  the  law:  "7  studied  with  nobody." 

And  so,  going  to  school  to  himself  in  United 
States  History,  he  did  as  the  teacher  wished.  As 
any  child  should,  he  began  with  biography,  choos- 
ing that  of  the  greatest  Revolutionary  hero.  Ere- 
long he  got  hold  of  the  chief  public  documents, 
the  Constitution,  and  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence; reading  and  re-reading,  pondering,  till 
he  almost  knew  them  by  heart.  Later  on,  he  read 
every  notable  speech  by  political  leaders,  and  the 
debates  in  Congress  on  important  questions. 
In  this  manner  he  stored  his  mind  with  facts, 
especially  those  bearing  upon  issues  of  his  own 
time,  in  order  that  when  he  should  speak  it  would 
be  with  certainty  and  authority.  His  question 
ever  was,  "What  is  the  truth?" 


His  Second  Special  Course  61 

He  studied  the  structure  of  our  Government  as 
he  would  a  building,  till  he  knew  its  every  bolt  and 
beam,  rock  foundation  and  capstone.  This,  with 
his  knowledge  of  citizenship,  learned  first  hand 
in  the  manner  described,  made  him  invincible  in 
argument. 

His  life  experiences,  all  he  read  and  learned, 
became  contributory  to  this  great  scheme  of 
specialized  education.  For  all  the  limitations  of 
his  early  life  there  was  given  full  compensation  in 
character,  moral  fibre,  power  of  endurance,  pa- 
tience, and  the  indomitable  will  to  overcome  diffi- 
culties.— And  little  had  he  to  unlearn. 


WHY  HE  STUDIED  EUCLID 

OPEAKING  of  himself,  Lincoln  says:  "He 
O  studied  and  nearly  mastered  the  six  books  of 
Euclid,  since  he  was  a  member  of  congress." 

His  term  in  congress  ended  March  4th,  1849, 
three  weeks  past  his  fortieth  birthday.  So  he  was 
still  going  to  school  to  Himself. 

The  work  was  done  chiefly  on  his  father's  farm 
where  he  went  for  a  stay  of  two  or  three  months 
for  that  purpose.  He  could  not  very  well  do  it  in 
his  law  office  or  at  home,  because  he  needed  soli- 
tude, a  place  for  the  utmost  concentration  of 
thought.  To  do  this  he  had  to  let  the  law  practice 
go,  leaving  it  with  the  junior  partner.  He  would 
not  have  done  this  so  late  in  life,  after  being  in 
congress,  unless  he  had  considered  the  study  of 
Euclid  a  matter  of  considerable  importance. 

Where  is  the  record  of  any  other  man  doing  the 
like?  The  explanation  is  that  he  looked  upon  it 
as  a  valuable  collateral  to  his  great  special  courses 
of  study.  One  of  these,  as  we  have  seen,  was  hu- 
man nature,  the  knowledge  of  people, — the  other 
nolitios.  in  the  broadest  sense  of  that,  term.  Thev 


Why  He  Studied  Euclid  63 

were  continuous  studies  that  applied  to  his  life 
work,  always  connected  with  the  forward  view. 

Dooley  said  of  Roosevelt  in  his  charge  on  San 
Juan  Hill,  "He  had  wan  eye  on  the  Spaniards  and 
the  ither  on  the  State  of  Noo  Yorruk." 

Without  doubt,  Lincoln  had  for  many  years  one 
eye  fixed  on  the  United  States  Senate.  He  stated 
long  after,  when  he  was  chief  executive,  that  the 
great  ambition  of  his  life  had  been,  not  to  be  presi- 
dent, but  to  serve  one  full  term  as  senator. 

At  this  time,  1849-50,  he  had  already  been 
pitted  against  Douglas  for  more  than  twelve  years, 
in  the  State  Legislature,  law  practice  and  political 
campaigns.  Long  before  the  Great  Debates  they 
were  consciously  antagonists. 

And  what  had  the  study  of  Euclid  to  do  with 
this?  Lincoln  had  learned  by  close  observation, 
hi  congress  particularly,  that  he  was  not  up  to  the 
highest  standard  as  a  public  speaker.  He  had  been 
especially  impressed  by  that  wonderful  product 
of  the  South,  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  whom  he 
admired  most  among  the  orators  of  the  House. 
When  he  retired  from  Congress  he  determined  to 
prepare  for  whatever  conflict  or  opportunity  might 
come  to  him.  He  wished  to  further  educate  him- 
self as  a  public  speaker,  and  that  was  why  he 
studied  Euclid. 

Why  Euclid  instead  of  Demosthenes  or  Cicero? 


64  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

Lincoln  saw  that  great  issues  were  pending  in 
the  political  field;  that  if  he  were  destined  to  take 
a  leading  part  he  must  accomplish  two  things: 
First,  he  must  understand  thoroughly  the  ques- 
tions involved.  Second,  he  must  be  able  to  reach 
the  people  with  convincing  argument  that  the 
views  he  held  were  true.  He  knew  in  his  heart 
that  he  could  never  advocate  a  cause  that  was  not 
right, — fully  endorsed  by  his  own  conscience. 
He  could  not  appeal  to  passion  or  prejudice,  he 
could  not  do  as  he  thought  Douglas  did,  make  plau- 
sible argument  based  on  wrong  premises  or  in- 
sidious half-truths.  No,  he  must  start  with  the 
whole  truth  as  he  understood  it,  though  in  the 
minority,  and  seek  to  convince  his  hearers  by  ap- 
pealing to  reason  and  conscience.  In  order  to  do 
this  his  logic  must  be  without  flaw.  He  must  not 
make  one  careless  or  unconsidered  statement, 
and,  most  difficult  of  all,  he  must  use  language 
so  simple  and  plain  that  even  the  uneducated  man 
to  whom  he  spoke  should  comprehend  his  meaning. 
He  must  be  able  to  demonstrate  in  words,  even  as 
arithmetic  is  demonstrated  by  figures. 

From  a  child,  he  stated,  he  was  seldom  angry 
except  for  one  thing:  that  people  would  speak  in 
such  a  way  that  he  could  not  tell  what  they 
meant,  and  he  then  determined  that  such  a  fault 
should  never  be  his. 


Why  He  Studied  Euclid  65 

And  that  was  why  he  studied  Euclid.  He  had 
been  told  on  good  authority  that  this  was  the  best 
book  in  existence  on  demonstration — the  only 
example  of  pure  logic.*  Therefore,  he  determined 
to  study  and  master  its  contents.  He  was  willing 
to  take  the  time,  to  be  apart  from  his  family,  to 
cut  short  his  income,  for  what  he  considered  the 
greater  gain;  the  discipline  of  his  mind,  the  im- 
provement of  his  speaking. 

He  consulted  his  teacher,  Himself,  who  told 
him  he  should  go  to  a  quiet  place;  out  of  doors, 
like  his  first  school  room  in  Indiana  or  Kentucky 
woods.  There  were  trees  and  sward  upon  the 
farm,  situated  as  he  said  "  where  prairie  and  timber 
joined." 

"I'll  go  with  you,"  said  the  teacher,  "and 
we'll  see  it  through/'  "Yes,"  replied  the  pupil, 
"it'll  be  another  cinch  on  Douglas."  And  so  it 
proved  to  be  eight  years  later  in  the  great  debates. 

*"When  I  was  through  with  Euclid,"  he  says,  "I  thought  I 
knew  what  demonstration  meant." 


DID  EUCLID  MAKE  HIM  PRESIDENT? 

IT  has  often  been  stated  that  Lincoln's  Cooper 
Institute  speech  made  him  President.  Certain 
it  is  that  by  the  effect  it  produced  in  the  East, 
where  he  was  not  well  known,  he  was  placed  in  a 
position  of  advantage.  A  number  of  states,  as 
usual,  had  " favorite  sons"  to  present  at  the  ap- 
proaching convention  and  Lincoln  now  became 
their  second  choice.  As  between  him  and  Seward, 
who  led  on  the  first  ballot,  a  majority  of  the  dele- 
gates were  for  Lincoln.  The  convention  was  held 
in  Chicago,  May  16-18,  1860.  The  Cooper  In- 
stitute speech  had  been  delivered  February  27th, 
three  months,  less  one  week,  before.  Considered 
as  a  master  work  of  reasoning,  and  by  its  results 
it  stands  without  doubt  the  greatest  political 
speech  ever  made  in  America.  Douglas  was  then 
the  leading  aspirant  for  nomination  on  the  Demo- 
cratic ticket.  Whatever  statement  he  made  was 
accepted  by  his  followers  as  authoritative.  In  a 
recent  speech  at  Columbus  he  had  said: 

"Our  fathers,  when  they  framed  the  govern- 
ment under  which  we  live,  understood  this  ques- 
tion just  as  well,  even  better,  than  we  do  now." 


Did  Euclid  Make  Him  President?        67 

Lincoln  said,  opening  his  speech:  "I  fully  en- 
dorse this,  and  I  adopt  it  as  a  text  for  this  dis- 
course. ...  It  furnishes  a  precise  and  agreed  start- 
ing point.  ...  It  simply  leaves  the  inquiry,  'What 
was  the  understanding  those  fathers  had  of  the 
question  mentioned? '  [That  of  slavery  extension 
into  new  territory].  Here  we  have  something  as 
definite  as  a  proposition  of  Euclid.  Accepted  by 
both  parties,  nothing  remains  to  consider  but  a 
complete  statement  of  the  facts  of  history  as  shown 
by  the  records.  According  to  the  premise  laid 
down  by  Douglas  himself ,  what  the  record  showed 
would  determine  the  conclusion  of  the  whole 
matter.  Arriving  at  that  conclusion,  controversy 
should  cease  by  rule  of  logic.  This  was  made  in- 
evitable by  the  assumption  of  Douglas  that  as  the 
fathers  thought  then,  so  should  we  think  now. 

This  placed  him  on  dangerous  ground,  for  it 
devolved  on  him  to  show  that  "the  fathers"  had 
thought  exactly  as  he  did  and  his  platform  de- 
clared. Whether  he  believed  that  he  could  make 
it  so  appear  by  misstatement  of  facts,  or  whether 
he  himself  was  ignorant  of  the  facts,  we  do  not 
know,  but  he  woke  up  a  political  mathematician 
who  knew  a  problem  when  he  saw  it,  and  the  one 
method  of  demonstration. 

Lincoln  proceeded  to  show  what  "the  fathers 
understood"  in  a  most  complete  manner.  He 


68  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

had  the  entire  mass  of  facts  arranged  in  perfect 
order;  he  knew  of  every  act  considered  both  by 
the  confederation  and  framers  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. He  knew  by  heart  the  names  of  all  the 
members  of  different  conventions,  and  how  each 
one  voted.  Not  only  that,  he  traced  the  lives  of 
nearly  all,  for  a  period  of  forty  years  afterward,  to 
show  how  they  voted  in  their  respective  states  as 
well  as  in  national  assemblies — this  to  demon- 
strate exactly  "what  the  fathers  understood,"  in 
accordance  with  the  proposition  Douglas  himself 
had  formulated.  He  swept  the  ground  clean, 
leaving  the  Senator  no  standing  place  in  his  own 
chosen  field  of  argument. 

This  speech  was  the  final  stroke  to  the  aspira- 
tion of  Douglas  to  head  a  united  party.  He  had 
been  discredited  with  the  Southern  leaders  eight- 
een months  before  by  his  evasive  answers  to 
the  questions  so  adroitly  put  to  him  by  Lincoln 
at  Freeport,  in  the  joint  debate.  This  great 
speech  convinced  them  further  that,  politically, 
he  was  a  demolished  idol. 

The  Cooper  Institute  speech  was  published  in 
whole  or  part  by  every  Republican  newspaper. 
It  was  quickly  printed  in  pamphlet  form  and  cir- 
culated as  a  campaign  document.  It  contained  a 
demonstration  that  people  could  understand.  It 
turned  clear  light  upon  the  darkened  issues. 


Did  Euclid  Make  Him  President?       69 

Would  this  speech  have  been  possible,  in  its 
entirety,  with  all  its  force,  if  Lincoln  had  not 
mastered  Euclid — at  the  age  of  forty  lying  under 
the  trees,  on  a  farm,  "where  timber  and  prairie 
joined"? 


THREE  INCH  YARDSTICKS 

THE  many  discussions  in  books  and  periodicals 
of  the  question,  "Was  Lincoln  a  Christian?" 
appear  to  the  writer  to  have  little  value.  Do  they 
not  start  too  often  with  a  narrow  perspective  and 
a  question  of  definitions? 

Ask  first:  "Did  he  in  his  life  show  forth  the 
Christ  spirit?"  If  the  answer  is  "Yes,  in  larger 
measure,  we  believe,  than  any  other  public  man 
of  all  the  centuries,"  does  not  that  settle  the  ques- 
tion once  for  all?  If  it  be  that  the  one  thing 
needed  most  hi  the  world  is  the  spirit  of  Christ 
permeating  all  affairs,  that  must  be  certainly 
what  Heaven  desires. 

Too  often  what  the  questioner  has  in  mind  is 
not  the  deep  meaning  of  the  spirit  and  the  life, 
but,  "Did  he  hold  the  particular  beliefs  about 
Christ  that  I  hold  myself?" 

Only  a  few  years  ago  the  writer  was  asked  by  a 
minister  of  note:  "Do  you  think  it  possible  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  could  be  saved?  "  "  Why  not?  " 
I  replied.  ' '  Because, ' '  said  he, ' '  there  is  no  evidence 


Three  Inch  Yardsticks  71 

that  he  ever  made  a  personal,  open  confession  of 
Christ  as  his  Saviour." 

To  his  mind,  the  confession  of  a  man's  whole 
life,  the  sacrifice  even  of  that  life  for  God's  truth, 
counted  for  nothing  without  a  formal  declaration 
before  the  committee  of  a  church. 

Let  us  be  candid.  Is  not  the  word  " Christian" 
in  the  very  nature  of  the  case  an  indefinite  term? 
It  did  not  originate  with  Christ  or  his  apostles. 
We  are  told  that  "The  disciples  were  first  called 
Christians  at  Antioch," — i.e.  they  were  so  named 
by  others,  not  themselves.  It  was  applied  to  them 
no  doubt  with  disrespect.  Out  of  necessity  the 
"disciples"  accepted  this  new  name,  which  has 
been  applied  since  to  all  who  named  the  name, 
thousands  of  sects,  each  one  believing  that  itself 
held  the  best  definition.  And  blood  has  flowed 
between  them  oftentimes  through  centuries  to 
establish  by  force  their  claims  of  superiority,  or 
infallibility. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  the  Almighty  Father 
does  not  think  as  we  do  in  terms  of  human  lan- 
guage. It  is  not  likely  that  with  Hun  the  mean- 
ing of  a  law,  physical  or  spiritual,  depends  on  the 
turn  of  a  word  in  any  language;  nor  did  he  in- 
spire translators  with  absolute  precision. 

Now  we  may  be  sure  that  Lincoln  thought  of 
all  these  things,  and  looking  forward  he  had  a 


72  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

vision  of  better  days  to  come,  when  all  of  Christen- 
dom would  stand  together  for  the  fundamental 
truths  and  be  satisfied. 

We  should  be  thankful  that  he  possessed  the 
simple  faith  and  courage  to  place  his  hand  in  that 
of  the  Almighty,  relying  on  Him  alone  for  strength 
and  guidance. 


HIS  RELIGIOUS  CREED 

IF  the  writer  were  asked  to  formulate  the  religious 
creed  of  Lincoln  in  theological  terms,  he  could 
not  do  it;  but,  the  statement  coming  nearest  would 
be  that  he  was  a  Calvinistic  Universalist.  It  would 
hardly  be  possible  to  find  two  words  more  fitting. 

He  certainly  believed  emphatically  in  the 
Divine  decrees,  even  in  ordinary  affairs.  Surely 
he  was  not  insincere — he  was  never  that — when 
he  wrote  to  Joshua  Speed,  July  4,  1842: 

"I  believe  God  made  me  one  of  the  instruments 
of  bringing  your  Fanny  and  you  together,  which 
union  I  have  no  doubt,  he  foreordained.  What- 
ever he  designs  he  will  do  for  me  yet.  '  Stand  still 
and  see  the  salvation  of  the  Lord'  is  my  text  just 
now." 

He  believed  inflexibly  that  Divine  retributive 
justice  would  be  meted  out  to  individuals  and  to 
nations.  Read  this,  spoken  most  solemnly  from 
the  depths  of  his  aching  heart,  in  the  second 
Inaugural  address.  Deploring  the  war  with  all 
its  horrors,  long  drawn  out  and  still  unfinished, 
he  speaks  of  the  great  individual  and  national 
sin  that  he  believes  is  responsible — human  slavery. 


74  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

Quoting  scripture  at  the  beginning  and  close  of  his 
statement,  he  says:  "Woe  unto  the  world  because 
of  offenses  .  .  .  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the 
offense  cometh."  .  .  .  "Fondly  do  we  hope — fer- 
vently do  we  pray — that  this  mighty  scourge  of 
war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills 
that  it  continue  till  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the 
bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unre- 
quited toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of 
blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another 
drawn  with  the  sword,  as  it  was  said  three  thou- 
sand years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  'The 
judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous 
altogether.' " 

Is  not  this  a  terrible  indictment,  equal  to  any 
pronounced  by  one  of  the  old  prophets  against 
Israel? 

Face  to  face  with  the  American  people,  this 
was  what  he  dared  say.  No  consideration  of 
policy,  nor  fear  of  offending,  could  prevent  his 
speaking  what  he  believed  to  be  the  truth  as  to 
God's  inflexible  justice. 

****** 

Over  against  the  Calvinistic  view  of  foreordina- 
tion  and  the  Decrees  stands  the  opposite  pole  of 
his  creed.  However  sure  the  punishment  of  evil- 
doing,  even  to  the  extent  of  blood  atonement  for 
national  sins,  as  shown  in  the  Inaugural,  he  could 


His  Religious  Creed  75 

not  get  the  consent  of  his  mind  to  shut  the  door 
of  hope  for  any  soul.  This  was  the  principle  that 
caused  him  to  commute  the  offenses  of  young 
soldiers,  to  give  them  another  chance.  He  seldom 
pardoned  outright  but  held  them  under  suspended 
sentence.  To  end  their  lives  seemed  to  him  sheer 
waste  and  poor  economy,  human  or  divine. 

The  Rev.  Erasmus  Manford,  a  distinguished 
Universalist  divine,  held  a  series  of  debates  in 
Springfield,  with  a  Mr.  Lewis,  taking  the  affirma- 
tive of  the  proposition  of  "the  restitution  of  all 
things  to  God,"  i.e.  that  nothing  should  be  lost  in 
the  finality.  Lincoln  attended  these  lectures  each 
day  and  night,  listening  attentively  and  nodding 
often  to  the  points  that  Mr.  Manford  made.  He 
said  the  doctor  had  the  better  of  the  argument, 
placed  on  a  scripture  basis.  He  respected  Mr. 
Manford  in  a  broad-minded  way,  for  his  ability, 
courage  and  honesty,  as  he  did  the  great  Bishop 
Simpson  of  the  Methodist  church,  Beecher  of  the 
Congregationalist,  and  Dr.  Campbell,  the  doughty 
old  seceder  from  the  Presbyterians. 

He  held  no  brief  for  any  sect,  but  recognized  the 
truth  that  any  creed,  to  live,  must  have  something 
in  it  worth  while.  At  the  same  time  he  may  have 
thought  it  unfortunate  that  any  body  of  Chris- 
tians should  base  its  existence  and  its  name  on 
one  particular  idea. 


HIS  RELIGION 

T  INCOLN  stated  repeatedly  that  if  any  church 
I—/  would  limit  its  creed  to  the  simple  statement 
of  Jesus  Himself,  summing  up  the  Law  and  the 
Prophets,  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thy  heart,  and  all  thy  mind,"  and  "thy 
neighbor  as  thyself,"  leaving  the  individual  free 
to  formulate  for  himself  what  further  belief  he 
would,  based  on  his  own  interpretation  of  the 
Word,  that  church  he  could  give  adherence  to 
whole-heartedly  and  would  gladly  join.  He  could 
not  bring  himself,  he  said,  to  formally  accept  a 
creed  with  mental  reservations.  Of  course  he 
would  have  freely  accepted  the  eleventh  command- 
ment of  Christ  Himself:  "That  ye  love  one 
another."  This  might  seem  to  be  embodied  in 
the  Tenj,  but  there's  a  difference.  It  represents  a 
higher  principle.  It  is  not  measured  by  self 
love,  but  is  like  the  divine,  unlimited. 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  brought  up  in  a  region  and 
within  a  period  especially  given  to  religious  con- 
troversy. Much  of  this  to  his  clear  reasoning  ap- 
peared to  be  of  no  importance.  Therefore,  as  an 
honest  man,  entitled  to  the  privilege  of  thinking 


His  Religion  77 

for  himself,  he  held  aloof  from  all  the  sects  engaged 
in  it.  But  he  read  his  Bible  habitually  and 
pondered  its  precepts,  always  with  a  practical 
application. 

Mr.  Rankin,  his  one  time  law-student,  author 
of  the  book  "Personal  Recollections  of  Abraham 
Lincoln"  says  of  him: 

"He  lived  his  religion.  It  was  a  constant, 
pervasive  part  of  the  man."  But:  "It  was  so 
intermingled  and  incorporated  with  the  other 
elements  of  his  unique  personality  as  to  defy 
complete  analysis  or  description." 

He  reports  that  Mrs.  Lincoln  stated:  "Mr. 
Lincoln's  religion  was  poetry,"  and  adds,  "she  was 
probably  correct.  If  so  it  was  of  an  idealism  akin 
to  that  of  those  who  '  do  always  behold  the  face  of 
my  Father  in  Heaven."1 

He  had  more  scriptural  truth  at  command,  for 
immediate  application  to  affairs,  public  or  private, 
than  nine  out  of  ten  of  the  preachers  of  his  time. 
He  has  incorporated  more  religious  truth  into 
speeches,  letters  and  state  papers  than  all  the 
other  presidents  up  to  this  day. 

This  spirit  of  independence  on  his  part  was 
entirely  free  from  pride  or  self-assertion,  or  any 
belligerent  feeling.  He  was  simply  and  modestly 
true  to  his  own  conscience.  He  knew  very  well 
the  benefits  that  come  from  association  and  or- 


78  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

ganized  effort,  and  laid  no  blame  on  others  for 
their  peculiar  tenets.  He  was  absolutely  demo- 
cratic in  religion  as  in  politics,  allowing  freely  to 
every  man  the  right  of  opinion  and  choice. 

And  he  always  helped  to  support  one  organiza- 
tion or  another.  He  held  a  church  pew  in  accord 
with  the  choice  of  his  wife,  attended  services  him- 
self, encouraged  the  minister  in  his  work,  and 
gave  his  moral  support  as  far  as  possible  to  all  the 
churches;  to  every  organization  that  had  for  its 
object  the  uplift  of  humanity.  He  was  particu- 
larly interested  in  the  advance  of  the  temperance 
cause,  that  he  upheld  not  only  by  his  words  but 
personal  example  of  the  strictest  sort.  Let  it  be 
shown  where  any  of  these  acts  were  inconsistent 
with  a  devout  inner  life. 


A  CHURCH  MEMBER  AT  LARGE 

WHEN  a  state  is  entitled  by  its  population  to 
one  more  Congressman,  and  the  districts 
can  not  be  at  once  readjusted  to  meet  the  require- 
ment, there  is  elected  on  occasion  a  Congressman 
at  large  who  represents  the  whole  people. 

It  may  be  said  of  Lincoln  that  by  his  universal 
sympathy,  his  complete  tolerance,  his  catholicity 
of  spirit,  he  was  a  churchman  at  large  for  the 
United  States  during  the  war.  All  looked  to  him, 
came  to  him,  advised  with  him,  more  freely  than 
they  could  have  done  had  he  been  formally  con- 
nected with  any  one  of  them.  May  not  the  Al- 
mighty have  had  a  purpose  in  this  also? 

And  the  Quakers  came.  The  aged  woman  held 
his  hand  and  said:  "Thee  must  not  think  thee 
stands  alone,  friend  Abraham.  We  are  all  praying 
for  thee.  .  .  .  The  Lord  hath  appointed  thee,  all 
our  hearts  are  with  thee,  and  the  people  love  thee. 
Take  comfort;  God  is  with  thee."  And  he  re- 
plied, "I  know  it.  It  is  not  hope  I  have,  but 
knowledge,  that  He  is  sustaining  me.  .  .  .  Other- 
wise my  heart  would  have  broken  long  ago.  .  .  . 
It  holds  me  to  my  work.  .  .  .  This  has  been  a  hard 


80  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

day.  I  was  almost  overwhelmed  when  you  came 
in.  You  have  given  a  cup  of  cold  water  to  a  very 
thirsty  and  grateful  man.  .  .  .  God  bless  you  all." 

The  Baptists  came  and  he  could  say,  "I  thank 
you  for  adding  to  the  effective  and  almost  unani- 
mous support  which  the  Christian  communities 
are  giving  to  the  country  and  to  liberty.  .  .  .  In- 
deed, it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  it  could  be 
otherwise  with  any  one  professing  Christianity." 

To  the  delegation  of  the  Presbyterian  General 
Assembly  he  could  say:  "It  has  been  my  happi^ 
ness  to  receive  testimonials  of  a  similar  nature 

from,  I  believe,  all  denominations  of  Christians 

Relying,  as  I  do,  upon  the  Almighty  Power,  and 
encouraged  as  I  am  by  the  resolutions  which  you 
have  just  read,  with  the  support  which  I  receive 
from  Christian  men,  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  use  all 
the  means  at  my  command  to  secure  the  termina- 
tion of  this  rebellion." 

To  the  Methodist  delegation  he  could  say: 
"Nobly  sustained  as  the  Government  has  been  by 
all  the  churches,  I  would  utter  nothing  which 
might  in  the  least  appear  invidious  against  any. 
Yet  without  this  it  may  be  fairly  said  that  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  not  less  devoted  than 
the  best,  is  by  its  greater  numbers  the  most  im- 
portant of  all.  It  is  no  fault  of  others  that  the 
Methodist  Church  sends  more  soldiers  to  the  field, 


A  Church  Member  at  Large     •        81 

more  nurses  to  the  hospital,  and  more  prayers  to 
heaven  than  any.  God  bless  it,  and  all  the 
churches,  and  blessed  be  God,  who,  hi  this  our 
great  trial  giveth  us  the  churches."  Was  not 
Lincoln  entitled  to  be  enrolled  a  member  of  the 
church  at  large? 


HIS  GREAT  SERMON 

WHEN  Mr.  Lincoln  delivered  his  Cooper 
Institute  speech,  he  was  fifty-one  years 
and  three  weeks  old.  He  had  often  spoken  of 
himself  as  "an  old  man."  Two  years  before, 
during  one  of  the  joint  debates  he  paused  to  read 
from  a  document  held  in  his  hand.  A  man  in  the 
audience  called  out  jeeringly,  "Put  on  your 
specs!"  "Yes,"  he  replied,  in  a  good-natured 
tone,  "I  am  compelled  to  do  so,  for  I  am 
an  old  man."  Evidently  his  life  seemed  to  him 
already  long,  for  he  had  been  at  hard  work,  with 
brawn  or  brain,  since  childhood,  beginning  "in 
his  eighth  year,"  as  he  elsewhere  said. 

Being  the  greatest  living  preacher  of  political 
truth,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  inclined  to  begin  his  dis- 
course with  a  text,  and  as  a  lesson  for  all  preachers 
it  may  be  noted  that  he  stuck  close  to  it  to  the 
end. 

The  text  was  taken  from  a  speech  recently 
made  by  Douglas  referring  to  the  paramount 
question:  "Has  the  national  government  the  con- 
stitutional right  to  exclude  slavery  from  United 


His  Great  Sermon  83 

States  territories?  If  so,  should  the  right  be 
exercised?"  On  both  propositions  Mr.  Douglas 
had,  on  his  own  motion,  and  probably  without  con- 
sidering where  it  might  lead  him,  given  out  the 
text  that  Lincoln  used.  "Our  fathers,  when 
they  framed  the  government  under  which  we  live, 
understood  this  question  just  as  well,  and  even 
better,  than  we  do  now." 

"Very  well,  accepted,"  says  Lincoln. 

The  whole  responsibility,  we  see,  rests  with 
"The  Fathers."  All  we  have  to  do  is  to  learn 
definitely  what  "the  fathers  understood."  (We 
will  take  the  liberty  of  numbering  several  of  the 
leading  questions.) 

FIRST:  "What  is  the  form  of  government  under 
which  we  live? 

"The  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 
That  "consists  of  the  original,  framed  in  1787  .  .  . 
and  twelve  subsequently  framed  amendments, 
the  first  ten  of  which  were  added  in  1789." 

SECOND:  "Who  were  our  fathers  that  framed 
the  Constitution? 

"The  'thirty-nine'  who  signed  the  original 
instrument  may  fairly  be  called  our  fathers  who 
framed  that  part  of  the  present  government.  It 
is  fair  to  say  that  they  represented  the  opinion 
and  sentiment  of  the  whole  nation  at  that  time." 

THIRD:  "What  is  the  question  which,  according 


84  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

to  the  text,  those  fathers  understood  'just  as  well, 
or  better  than  we  do  now'  ? 

"It  is  this:  Does  the  proper  division  of  local 
from  Federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the  Con- 
stitution, forbid  our  Federal  Government  to  con- 
trol as  to  slavery  in  our  Federal  Territories?" 

Please  note  the  careful  wording  and  inclusive- 
ness  of  this  question. 

Upon  this  Senator  Douglas  holds  the  affirmative 
and  Republicans  the  negative.  This  affirmation 
and  denial  form  an  issue :  and  this  issue,  this  ques- 
tion, is  precisely  what  the  text  declares  our  fathers 
understood,  "better  than  we." 

FOURTH:  "Let  us  now  inquire  whether  the 
'thirty-nine,'  or  any  of  them,  ever  acted  upon 
this  question;  and  if  they  did,  how  they  acted 
upon  it." 

Do  not  these  propositions  appear  to  you  like  a 
mathematical,  Euclidian  base,  for  the  exact  solu- 
tion of  a  problem?  It  is  a  foundation  without  flaw 
for  the  argument  of  fact  that  follows. 

After  quoting  several  instances,  where  members 
of  the  "thirty-nine"  had  voted  for  slavery  pro- 
hibition, including  the  "ordinance  of  '87,"  Mr. 
Lincoln  adds  the  following  "clincher": 

"In  1789,  by  the  first  Congress  that  sat  under 
the  Constitution  an  act  was  passed  to  enforce  the 
ordinance  of  '87,  including  the  prohibition  of 


His  Great  Sermon  85 

slavery  in  the  Northwestern  territory.  The  bill 
for  this  act  was  reported  by  one  of  the  'thirty- 
nine' — Thomas  Fitzsimmons,  then  a  member  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  from  Pennsylvania. 
It  went  through  all  its  stages  without  a  word  of 
opposition  and  finally  passed  both  branches  with- 
out ayes  and  nays,  which  is  equivalent  to  a  unani- 
mous passage.  In  this  congress  there  were  sixteen 
of  the  'thirty-nine '  fathers  who  framed  the  original 
Constitution."  Mr.  Lincoln  gives  their  names, 
one  being  James  Madison,  afterward  President  of 
the  United  States.  "Again,  George  Washington, 
another  of  the  'thirty-nine,'  then  President,  ap- 
proved and  signed  the  bill." 


FOR  CHRISTMAS  AND  NEW  YEAR 

Of  all  true  words  occasion  fitting, 
By  men  of  honored  names; 
His  stand  apart,  like  apples  golden, 
IP  silver  shining  frames. 

PROVERBS  25 : 11. 

ONE  of  the  greatest  lines  that  Edwin  Markham 
ever  wrote  was  this,  in  his  ode  to  Lincoln : 

"His  words  were  oaks  in  acorns." 

It  is  true.  Planted  deep  enough  to  take  root  in 
the  thought  of  mankind  anywhere,  they  grow  into 
trees  of  righteousness — and  the  trees  shall  be  like 
those  of  the  Apocalypse,  "for  the  healing  of  the 
Nations." 

On  the  fourth  of  March,  1865,  the  President  de- 
livered his  second  Inaugural  Address.  It  is  the 
briefest  document  of  its  kind  save  one,  and  the 
greatest,  unless  we  except  his  first  Inaugural. 
It  was  written  on  the  spiritual  heights  of  patriot- 
ism. There  is  not  to  be  found  within  it  one 
touch  of  the  ego. 

The  greatest  battle  of  the  war,  that  of  BALLOTS, 
had  been  fought  and  won,  for  the  UNION.  And 
the  Address  is  a  psalm  of  praise,  not  at  all  for  his 


For  Christmas  and  New  Year          87 

personal  success,  but  for  the  Blessing  upon  his 
country.  He  accepts  the  election  as  God's  promise 
of  victory  for  the  great  cause  to  which  he  is  soon 
to  give  "the  last  full  measure  of  devotion." 

The  storms  of  passion  rage  about  him,  the  war 
is  coming  to  its  climax.  But  his  great  spirit  rides 
above  the  storm.  He  knows  about  the  Hate,  the 
disposition  of  Revenge,  the  cruel  lust  for  punish- 
ment soon  to  ensue — in  the  name  of  Justice. 

Looking  calmly  forward  to  the  coming  issue,  he 
speaks  four  words — 

"WITH  MALICE  TOWARD  NONE." 

Let  none  of  these  things  have  place  he  means, 
hi  our  settlement  with  the  Southern  people.  Let 
love  prevail  above  all  else.  Let  Kindness  govern 
with  your  so-called  justice,  0  my  countrymen! 

Having  in  mind  the  bitterness  of  the  political 
contest,  knowing  of  all  the  cruel,  malicious  things 
that  had  been  said  of  himself  and  his  co-workers, 
of  the  natural  resentment  that  would  be  felt  by 
those  of  his  own  party,  he  adds  four  words  more, — 

"WITH   CHARITY  FOR  ALL." 

How  they  harmonize  like  musical  notes  with  the 
words  of  Christ  and  the  song  of  the  angels : 
"Peace  on  Earth — Good  will  toward  men." 
"Blessed  are  the  Peacemakers." 
"If  ye  forgive  not  men  their  trespasses.  ..." 
Lincoln  knew  that  many  of  the  North  were 


88  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

hating  the  people  of  the  South :  that  many  of  the 
South  also  hated  those  of  the  North.  "Rise  above 
all  this,"  was  the  soul  of  his  message:  "Love  alone 
can  make  us  one  people."  And  soon  his  voice  was 
stilled,  his  words  unheeded,  often  disregarded.  It 
has  taken  more  than  a  half  century  for  their 
realization. 

Is  there  not  a  message  for  us  each  this  day  in 
those  eight  words? — to  crush  out  petty  thoughts 
and  selfish  motives,  to  widen  our  vision  of  life  and 
duty,  enlarge  the  spirit  of  love  toward  all  around 
us,  and  to  all  the  world? 


TO  ALL  PATRIOTS 

IN  the  holiday  time  we  gave  what  seemed  to  be 
an  appropriate  message  taken  from  the  second 
inaugural  address,  March  4,  1865,  just  one  month 
and  ten  days  before  his  removal  from  the  earth. 

The  text  consisted  of  two  clauses  that  rank 
with  the  very  beatitudes  of  Christ;  are  in  truth 
but  a  new  expression  of  His  Spirit — two  clauses  of 
four  words  each — 

With  Malice  Toward  None; 
With  Charity  for  All. 

Immortal  words,  destined  to  shine  evermore  on 
the  scroll  of  the  ages.  Just  before  them,  closing 
the  preceding  paragraph,  is  a  quotation  from 
scripture  (Ps.  19]:  9):  "The  judgments  of  the  Lord 
are  true  and  righteous  altogether." 

The  eight  words  refer  strictly  to  a  state  of  mind 
— of  feeling,  of  motive.  They  are  an  appeal  to  the 
heart,  for  greater  love  that  shall  displace  hate  and 
overcome  all  prejudice  and  resentment  and  re- 
vengefulness :  an  appeal  both  to  North  and  South. 

Then,  with  only  a  semicolon  between,  comes  a 
further  statement  calling  to  Action:  "With  firm- 


90  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

ness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right, 
let  us  strive  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in:  to  bind 
up  the  Nation's  wounds,  to  care  for  him  who  shall 
have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow,  and  his 
orphan — to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish 
a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with 
all  nations." 

So  ends  the  Inaugural  message.  Read  the  words 
over  and  over  again,  dear  reader.  Try  and  absorb 
their  full  meaning  to  our  time.  Let  us  not  forget 
his  recognition  of  "The  judgments  of  the  Lord," 
the  plea  for  light  and  guidance,  "as  God  gives  us 
to  See." 

But  we  are  to  act  upon  this  guidance.  We  must 
strive  to  "finish  the  work":  There  must  be  no 
halt,  no  "backward  step,"  no  surrender  of  prin- 
ciple, no  compromise  with  wrong.  What  a  lesson 
for  our  country,  the  world — and  for  each  one. 

Should  not  Lincoln's  words,  freighted  with  deep 
meaning,  come  to  us  all  like  a  divine  message? 


OTHER  NATIONS 

AS  you  read  the  closing  paragraph  of  Lincoln's 
last   deliverance  to   the   American   People 
that  comes  like  a  benediction  after  prayer,  did  you 
reflect  in  particular  on  these  words — "to  do  all 
that  may  achieve  a  lasting  peace  among  ourselves, 

AND  WITH  ALL  NATIONS?" 

He  had  the  world-wide  view,  that  was  never  lost 
or  obscured  by  the  clouds  that  covered  our  own 
land.  From  his  early  boyhood,  wherever  he  had 
lived,  he  was  known  for  the  spirit  of  neighborliness. 
He  realized  always,  and  never  forgot  that  nations 
were  but  neighbors  who  ought  to  dwell  in  harmony 
one  with  another.  He  would  accept  war  only  as 
a  bitter  and  dire  necessity,  for  conservation  of  the 
Right, — "as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  Right." 
When  at  the  Civil  War's  beginning,  the  Secretary 
of  State  lost  his  mental  balance  for  the  moment, 
and  would  send  a  note  to  England  not  carefully 
worded,  Lincoln  promptly  erased  each  question- 
able word,  and  freed  the  document  of  every  ex- 
pression that  might  possibly  irritate  or  offend. 


92  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

The  Secretary  thought  as  the  fool  thinketh,  as 
rulers  through  the  centuries  have  thought,  to 
avert  war  at  home  by  making  war  abroad.  His 
foot  slipped  and  he  was  falling,  till  the  President 
caught  him  by  the  arm,  and  held  him  steady.  So 
did  he  later,  at  a  most  critical  moment  when 
many  lost  their  poise  with  temper  and  excite- 
ment, in  the  Mason-Slidell  affair.  "Keep  cool," 
he  said  in  substance,  "and  reflect.  Remember 
England  is  our  neighbor,  with  equal  rights;  con- 
sider— put  ourselves  in  her  place.  Suppose  that 
she  had  boarded  one  of  our  ships  and  taken 
therefrom  two  passengers  who  happened  to  be 
persons  obnoxious  to  her,  bound  on  some  errand 
she  disapproved.  It  would  not  be  right  for  her, 
neither  is  it  right  for  us.  We  must  give  up  these 
men.  It  may  be  for  the  moment  humiliating  to 
do  so,  but  it  is  better  to  wound  our  pride  than  do 
a  wrong." 

Lincoln  would  have  hailed  with  joy  a  possible 
treaty  of  world  peace.  But  he  would  not  have 
compromised  right  or  agreed  with  any  injustice 
to  obtain  such  an  agreement. 

As  in  the  making  of  a  flatboat  on  the  Ohio  or  the 
Sangamon,  he  would  insist  that  every  piece  of 
timber  should  be  sound. 

God  knows,  dear  friends,  we  want  world  union 
— and  perpetual  peace  thereby,  but  we  shall  not 


Other  Nations  93 

consciously  endorse  a  wrong  that  any  neighbor 
would  inflict  upon  another.  Honest  we  should  be 
in  whatsoever  we  endorse,  let  come  what  will. 
So  Lincoln  stood,  and  so  stand  we,  let  us  hope  and 
trust. 


GUARDED  SPEECH 

WHAT  a  lesson  public  men  might  learn,  and 
others  too,  by  the  study  of  Lincoln's  TACT 
and  SILENCE.  By  this  is  meant  his  careful  avoid- 
ance of  the  pitfalls  of  speech  either  spoken  or 
written.  There  is  nothing  more  dangerous  to  the 
reputation  of  a  man  in  high  place  than  ill-con- 
sidered or  impulsive  statements.  Even  the  foolish 
statement  of  another  man,  allowed  to  pass  unre- 
buked  or  uncorrected,  has  defeated  one  candidate 
for  the  presidency  of  the  United  States.  A  minis- 
ter of  the  gospel,  tempted  by  a  phrase,  spoke  three 
words  in  an  address  of  welcome  to  his  candidate; 
and  the  candidate  not  being  quick  to  realize  their 
dangerous  significance,  and  to  protest  them  in- 
stantly, they  flew  like  multiplied  arrows  to  the 
voters  of  New  York,  the  pivotal  state,  and  lost 
the  election  for  him  and  his  party.  "Rum,  Ro- 
manism and  Rebellion"  made  Burchard  the 
Nemesis  of  Blaine  and  handed  out  the  chiefest 
office  to  Grover  Cleveland. 

We  may  be  quite  sure,  I  think,  that  the  words 
would  not  have  escaped  the  attention  of  Lincoln. 
He  had  a  wonderful  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things, 


Guarded  Speech  95 

and  quickness  to  see  the  power  for  good  or  evil  in 
a  phrase. 

In  this  same  city  of  New  York,  twenty-four 
years  before  Burchard  killed  Elaine  with  three  R's, 
the  attempt  was  made  to  trap  Lincoln  into  a 
political  speech,  while  he  was  on  his  pre-inaugural 
trip.  He  parried  their  friendly  but  unwise  effort 
in  this  fashion : 

"I  did  not  understand  that  I  was  brought  here 
to  make  a  speech:  that  being  in  this  room  where 
Daniel  Webster  and  Henry  Clay  had  made 
speeches,  I  should  also  say  something  worthy  of 
myself  and  this  audience  ...  of  course,  I  could  . . . 
make  an  argument  on  a  political  question  without 
much  preparation.  But  I  have  been  occupying  a 
position  of  SILENCE — of  avoiding  public  speaking 
— and  public  writing.  ...  I  am  brought  before  you 
now  and  asked  to  make  a  speech  when  you  all  ap- 
prove more  than  anything  else  that  I  have  been 
keeping  silence."  He  was  cheered,  and  then  con- 
tinued: "It  seems  to  me  that  the  response  you 
give  to  that  remark  ought  to  justify  me  in  closing 
right  here. 

"I  have  said  several  times  on  this  journey,  and 
now  repeat,  that  when  the  tune  comes  I  shall  take 
the  ground  that  I  think  is  right — right  for  the 
North,  for  the  South,  for  the  East,  for  the  West — 
for  the  whole  country.  Have  I  said  enough?" 


96  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

Loud  cries  of  "No,  no!"  and  "three  cheers  for 
Lincoln!" 

"Now,  my  friends,"  he  responded,  "there  ap- 
pears to  be  a  difference  of  opinion  between  you 
and  me,  and  I  really  feel  called  upon  to  decide  the 
question  myself."  This  ended  the  "speech." 

Of  course  he  had  been  speaking  to  many  audi- 
ences, and  would  speak  again;  but  only  as  a  patriot 
to  patriots;  not  with  regard  to  details  of  policy  or 
argument  of  questions.  He  was  appealing  to  the 
hearts  of  the  people,  to  all  that  made  for  unity, 
and  he  was  trying  not  to  touch  the  keys  of  discord 
anywhere.  At  least  three  Presidents  since  have 
not  been  as  wise. 


FAREWELL 
(SPRINGFIELD,  ILL.,  FEB.  11,  1861). 

Farewell  for  aye  to  this  love  hallowed  home, 

Where  all  thy  sons  were  born: 
Bespeak  the  prayers  of  these,  thy  neighbor-friends, 

— Tear-dimmed  their  eyes  this  morn. 

A  PRAIRIE  town  of  plain  buildings,  with 
muddy  streets,  a  house  of  tender  memories, 
well  out  toward  the  surrounding  farms.  The 
family  of  five:  three  boys  there  were — a  fourth 
had  been. 

Scant  sleep  their  parents  found  that  night,  with 
heartstrings  tense. 

First  light  of  morn  that  pierced  the  drizzling 
rain. 

Then  splashing  sound  of  hoofs  and  wheels :  one 
backward  look — forever. 

A  waiting  train,  eastbound;  loud-breathing  en- 
gine; a  weatherbeaten  face  looks  out  and  back- 
ward from  its  window. 

Upon  the  rearward  platform  stands  the  man  of 
towering  height  and  strength. 

Many  have  gathered  at  this  early  hour  to  say 


98  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

"Good-by"  and  hear  his  parting  words.  With 
tears  upon  his  cheek,  he  speaks : 

"My  Friends:  No  one  not  in  my  position  can 
realize  the  sadness  I  feel  at  this  parting.  To  these 
people  I  owe  everything.  Here  I  have  lived  for 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Here  my  chil- 
dren were  born,  here  one  of  them  lies  buried.  I 
know  not  when  if  ever  I  shall  see  you  again.  I 
go  to  assume  a  task  more  difficult  than  that  which 
has  devolved  on  any  other  man  since  the  days  of 
Washington.  He  never  would  have  succeeded 
except  for  the  aid  of  Divine  Providence,  on  which 
he  at  all  tunes  relied.  I  feel  that  I  cannot  succeed 
without  the  same  Divine  blessing.  On  the  same 
Almighty  Being  I  place  my  reliance  for  support 
and  guidance.  I  hope  that  you,  my  friends,  will 
all  pray  that  I  may  receive  that  Divine  assistance, 
without  which  I  cannot  succeed,  but  with  which 
success  is  certain.  Again,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate 
farewell." 

He  bowed  his  head  and  turned  away,  his  hand 
upraised  with  blessing.  He  could  not  hear  the 
sobs  that  followed  while  the  train  went  forth. 

Through  many  miles,  from  the  window  he  beheld 
familiar  scenes.  At  Decatur,  while  the  crowds 
were  cheering,  his  eye  sought  out  the  ground  where 
one-and-thirty  years  before,  his  wagon  stood, 
with  the  panting  oxen  just  come  from  the  Indiana 


Farewell  99 

woods.  And  he  had  passed,  but  half  an  hour 
before,  the  very  spot  where  he  had  helped  to  plow 
and  fence  their  first  brave  homestead  on  the 
prairie. 

And  now  his  eyelids  close  for  thought.  To- 
morrow— on  his  birthday;  in  the  Capitol  of  an- 
other state,  shall  be  a  noble  speech. 


ON  CHILDHOOD  READING 

ON  this  same  pre-inaugural  trip  of  which  we 
have  been  writing,  among  the  places  visited 
was  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  .  Here,  as  elsewhere, 
Mr.  Lincoln  spoke  briefly  on  patriotic  themes, 
keeping  " silent"  as  to  political  policies  in  ac- 
cordance with  his  determined  plan.  His  first 
thought  was  of  local  history  as  related  to  the 
Revolution,  when  Washington  made  the  celebrated 
crossing  of  the  Delaware  River  to  capture  the 
British  army,  of  Hessians  chiefly,  at  daybreak. 
After  a  few  introductory  sentences  he  said: 

"Away  back  in  my  childhood,  the  earliest  days 
of  my  being  able  to  read,  I  got  hold  of  a  small 
book,  that  few  of  you  perhaps  have  ever  seen, 
"Weems'  Life  of  Washington."  I  REMEMBER  all 
the  accounts  there  given  of  the  battlefields  and 
struggles  for  the  liberties  of  the  country,  and  none 
fixed  itself  in  my  imagination  so  deeply  as  the 
struggle  here  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  The 
crossing  of  the  river,  the  hardships  endured  at 
that  time,  all  impressed  my  mind  most  vividly, 
and  you  men  know,  for  you  have  all  been  boys, 
how  these  early  impressions  last  longest.  And  / 


On  Childhood  Reading  101 

recollect  thinking  then,  boy  even  though  I  was, 
that  there  must  have  been  something  even  more 
than  national  independence;  something  that  held 
out  a  great  promise  to  all  the  people  of  the  world  to 
all  time  .  .  .  that  this  Union,  the  Constitution,  and 
the  liberties  of  the  people  shall  be  perpetuated." 

There  are  other  important  lessons  contained  in 
this  speech,  but  I  wish  here  to  emphasize  one  hi 
particular. 

Where  was  this  boy  when  he  read  of  "that 
struggle,"  and  did  so  think  about  it? 

He  was  in  a  log  cabin  home,  or  lying  under  a 
tree  near  by,  in  the  woods  of  the  West.  There  was 
not  a  schoolhouse  probably  within  twenty  miles 
of  where  he  lived.  How  old  was  he?  Not  beyond 
his  tenth  year,  for  he  says,  "My  earliest  days  of 
being  able  to  read." 

Who  was  his  teacher?  His  own  mother,  who  was 
taken  from  him  when  he  was  nine  years  and  eight 
months  old.  She  it  was  who  taught  him  to  read, 
and  with  the  reading  told  him  of  his  own  patriotic 
ancestors. 

And  what  was  the  "small  book,"  this  "Weems" 
of  which  he  speaks? 

It  was  a  warm-blooded,  enthusiastic  story  of 
Washington  and  the  war.  The  critics  said  that  in 
many  details  it  was  inaccurate,  and  they  "laughed 
it  out  of  court,"  as  the  work  of  a  visionary  writer. 


102  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

But  it  was  vivid,  entertaining,  essentially  true, 
the  story  with  a  SOUL.  The  influence  of  this  book 
on  the  mind  and  heart  of  one  boy  who  grew  up  to 
speak  the  words  above  quoted,  was  well  worth 
the  cost  of  its  publication,  and  a  full  offset  of  its 
faults.  Moreover,  we  know  very  well  that  thou- 
sands of  other  lads  were  inspired  likewise,  and 
were  made  better  citizens  by  the  story  it  told. 

What  lesson,  parents?  First,  that  the  vital 
elements  of  education  depend  not  on  schools,  but 
the  home,  and  you.  Second,  that  there  is  no  esti- 
mating the  power  for  good  of  one  " small  book" 
well  absorbed.  And  the  lifelong  influence:  Lin- 
coln says,  "I  recollect  thinking  then."  Read 
those  four  words  over  a  few  times,  and  let  their 
meaning  sink  in.  What  patriotic  book  is  in  your 
home?  How  much  is  it  being  read  by  your  boy, 
your  girl,  yourself? 

What  was  the  mental  food  of  that  man  who 
grew  to  be  the  greatest  of  his  century? 

Few  books,  but  choice,  read  o'er  and  o'er  again, 

Before  the  fagot  light; 
Or  in  the  Sabbath  stillness  of  the  woods, 

And  pondered,  day  and  night. 

Treasure  the  books  that  are  worth  re-reading: 
and  that  make  you  think — and  THINK. 


BREVITY  OF  SPEECH 

LINCOLN  could  make  a  long  speech  when  oc- 
casion demanded,  in  a  political  campaign 
when  the  opinions  of  assembled  hundreds  or 
thousands  had  to  be  taken  account  of  separately. 
But  he  never  for  a  moment  lost  sight  of  the  main 
issue  involved.  Read  through  his  "Complete 
Works,"  and  you  will  find  that  usually  his  de- 
liverances were  short.  Brevity  and  concentration 
characterized  the  speeches  he  made  on  this  jour- 
ney to  Washington  that  we  have  been  following. 

In  order  to  get  the  full  meaning  of  his  utterances, 
one  needs  to  read  slowly,  thoughtfully,  and  repeat, 
as  if  studying  scripture. 

The  speech  to  the  Senate  of  New  Jersey  quoted 
from  in  our  last  paper,  deserves  to  be  preserved 
as  a  whole  among  his  classics.  Following  the 
reference  to  our  Revolutionary  " struggle"  note 
the  following:  "I  am  exceedingly  anxious  that 
this  Union,  the  Constitution  and  the  liberties  of 
the  people  shall  be  perpetuated."  (How?)  " in  ac- 
cordance with  the  original  idea  for  which  that 
struggle  was  made." 

Liberty?    Yes,  but  not  license,  not  disruption, 


104  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

not  overthrow,  not  destruction  of  the  Union,  but 
liberty  under  law.  That  was  what  he  meant, 
what  he  stood  for  and  was  determined  to  enforce. 
And  that  is  exactly  what  we  musv  stand  for  now. 
The  majority  shall  Rule — with  a  great,  big  R. 

His  personal  relation?  "I  shall  be  most  happy 
indeed  if  I  shall  be  a  humble  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  the  Almighty,  and  of  this  His  almost 
chosen  people,  for  perpetuating  the  object  of  that 
great  struggle."  This,  as  we  know,  involved  an- 
other and  greater  struggle,  just  then  impending, 
one  he  hoped  to  avert,  but  from  which,  if  in- 
evitable, he  would  not  flinch. 

And  now  note  his  frankness,  his  simple  friend- 
liness, ignoring  of  party  spirit:  "I  learn  that  the 
majority  of  this  body  is  of  gentlemen  who,  in  the 
exercise  of  then:  best  judgment  in  the  choice  of  a 
chief  magistrate,  did  not  think  I  was  the  man. 
I  understand,  nevertheless,  that  they  come  for- 
ward here  to  greet  me  as  the  constitutionally 
elected  President  of  the  United  States — as  citizens 
of  the  United  States,  to  meet  the  man  who,  for  the 
tune  being,  is  the  representative  of  the  majesty 
of  the  Nation — united  by  the  single  purpose  to 
perpetuate  the  Constitution,  the  Union,  and  the 
liberties  of  the  people.  As  such,  I  accept  this 
reception  more  gratefully  than  I  could  do  did  I 
believe  it  were  tendered  to  me  as  an  individual." 


Brevity  of  Speech  105 

In  his  address  immediately  following,  to  the 
House  of  Representatives,  he  made  a  statement 
distinctly  applicable  to  our  own  tune:  "The  man 
does  not  live  who  is  more  devoted  to  peace  than 
I  am,  none  who  would  do  more  to  preserve  it,  but 
it  may  be  necessary  to  put  the  foot  down  firmly." 
(Prolonged  cheers  followed  this  expression).  "If 
I  do  my  duty  and  do  right,  you  will  sustain  me, 
will  you  not?"  (Cries  of  "Yes,  yes,  we  will!") 

"I  trust  that  I  may  have  your  assistance  in 
piloting  the  Ship  of  State  through  this  voyage, 
surrounded  by  perils  as  it  is,  for  if  it  should  suffer 
wreck  now,  there  will  be  no  pilot  ever  needed  for 
another  voyage." 

Four  years  and  two  months  later  Whitman 
wrote : 

O  Captain!    My  Captain!    Our  fearful  trip  is  done; 
The  ship  has  weathered  every  rack, 

The  prize  we  sought  is  won; 

.  .  .  But  O  heart!  heart!  heart!  the  bleeding  drops  of  red 
Where  on  the  deck  my  Captain  lies,  fallen  cold  and  dead. 


STANTON'S  VISION 

IN  the  "Complete  Works"  of  Lincoln  and  other 
collections,  some  hundreds  of  little  telegrams  or 
letters  are  not  included.  They  were  considered 
hardly  worth  while,  being  so  monotonously  alike. 
Why  should  people  be  interested,  the  compilers 
thought,  hi  fifty  pages  of  matter  like  the  following, 
brief  deliverances,  referring  to  one  subject,  viz: 
the  commutation  of  death  sentences  of  common 
boy  soldiers? 

To  MBS.  MABT  McCooK  BALDWIN,  NASHVILLE,  TENN.: 

This  is  an  order  to  the  officer  having  in  charge  to  execute 
the  death  sentence  upon  John  S.  Young,  to  suspend  the  same 
until  further  order. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

Some  one  might  ask:  "Who  were  these  people, 
and  of  what  interest  their  case  to  us?" 

Well,  we  know  this,  the  case  was  of  vital  in- 
terest to  them  and  of  interest  to  the  heart  of  Lin- 
coln. There  is  no  record  we  believe  that  "the 
further  order"  in  such  cases  was  ever  issued. 

To  MAJOR  THOMAS,  CHATTANOOGA,  TENN.: 

Suspend  execution  of  Young  Perry,  from  Wisconsin,  con- 
demned for  sleeping  on  his  post,  until  further  orders. 


Stanton's  Vision  107 

On  February  12,  1864,  his  birthday,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's mind  was  particularly  burdened  with  the 
case  of  one  James  Taylor,  fearing  that  the  order 
might  not  reach  in  time  the  officer  in  charge.  He 
sent  several  dispatches  to  Boston  and  New  York, 
one  of  which  was  to  Gen.  Dix.  He  seemed  to  wish 
to  celebrate  his  own  birthday  by  saving  a  life. 

And  Stanton  stormed,  saying  Lincoln  was 
breaking  down  the  discipline  of  the  army.  And 
Lincoln  knew  better.  He  was  saving  boys,  nearly 
all  under  18,  and  their  broken-hearted  mothers. 

Then  there  came  a  night.  High  pillowed  on  a 
borrowed  bed  lies  the  unconscious  Chief,  measur- 
ing out  with  stertorous  breath  the  few  remaining 
hours  of  life.  Those  who  have  a  right  are  there; 
one,  the  inflexible  War  Lord,  his  heart  torn  as 
never  before.  Through  the  long  hours,  with  head 
bowed  upon  his  hands,  he  sits  and  thinks  upon  the 
past, — and  the  future.  He  has  new  vision  of  the 
planes  of  life.  He  sees  the  Chief  upon  the  higher, 
himself  the  lower;  he,  feared,  respected  for  his 
force:  the  Chief,  bound  to  the  souls  of  men  with 
cords  of  love,  now  and  evermore.  They  heard 
him  speaking  once  as  to  himself,  "Yes,  he  was 
the  Master  of  us  all,  who  ruled  with  Love  in 
highest  place." 

Now  light  is  breaking  on  the  eastern  sky.  A 
door  seems  opening  through  the  corridors  of  Tune. 


108  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

The  room  is  silent  except  for  sobs.  A  few  faint 
breathings,  and  the  bells  will  toll.  The  Warrior's 
vision  is  complete.  The  deep  tones  of  his  voice 
pronounce  an  immortal  tribute: 

"NOW  HE  BELONGS  TO  THE  AGES." 


THE    UNSELFISH    MAN:— WANTS    LESS, 
NOT  MORE 

ONLY  once  I  think  it  is  recorded  that  Lincoln 
sued  for  the  collection  of  a  fee.  The  party 
was  a  wealthy  corporation,  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad,  and  the  fee  was  for  unusually  valuable 
service.  The  bill  was  paid  with  costs.  Lincoln 
felt  that  it  would  be  an  unrighteous  thing  to  yield 
the  point.  It  was  the  principle  involved  that  he 
cared  for  more  than  the  fee,  though  he  needed 
that  very  much. 

As  a  rule  his  feeling  was  with  respect  to  any 
fee,  "This  is  enough,"  or  "It  should  be  less." 
Another  man  would  say,  "I  fear  I  am  not  getting 
enough."  Lincoln  said:  "I  fear  I  shall  be  taking 
too  much."  If  there  was  any  question  about  the 
matter  he  always  preferred  to  give  the  benefit  of 
doubt  to  the  other  party. 

Here  is  an  illustrative  story,  that  we  think  has 
not  been  heretofore  published.  It  is  given  us  by 
the  Rev.  W.  S.  Marquis,  who,  when  young,  lived 
in  Bloomington,  Illinois.  It  was  told  him  as  a 
personal  experience  by  Mr.  Flagg,  a  merchant  of 
that  city.  Bloomington,  County  Seat  of  McLean, 


110  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

was  an  important  point  on  "  The  Circuit "  travelled 
by  Lincoln  and  other  attorneys  in  the  early  days. 
Mr.  Flagg  related  that  once  he  had  a  case  in  court 
involving  several  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  prop- 
erty. It  had  hung  on  year  after  year,  his  lawyers 
not  being  able  apparently  to  untangle  the  legal 
knots  involved.  Meeting  Lincoln  in  town,  he  asked 
him  to  take  charge  of  the  matter,  thinking  that 
within  a  year  he  might  get  matters  straightened 
out.  After  a  short  investigation,  Mr.  Lincoln 
made  a  motion  in  court  which  resulted  in  a 
speedy  settlement  that  was  highly  satisfactory. 
Then  the  merchant  expected  that  a  statement  for 
legal  service  would  come  soon  by  mail,  but  it  did 
not.  After  some  months  Mr.  Lincoln  came  into 
the  store,  apparently  for  just  a  friendly  chat. 
The  man  supposed  he  had  a  collection  hi  mind, 
but  he  made  no  reference  to  it.  As  he  started  to 
go  away  the  merchant  called  him  back  to  say  that 
he  wished  to  settle  his  bill.  Lincoln  seemed  sur- 
prised, then  said,  after  thinking  a  moment:  "0, 
that  motion  I  made  in  court, — that  was  a  small 
matter,  only  took  a  few  minutes.  I  quite  forgot 
about  it."  "But  it  was  not  a  small  matter  for 
me,"  replied  the  man,  "and  I  want  a  bill  for  your 
services."  "0  well,"  said  Lincoln,  "if  you  feel 
that  way  about  it,  give  me  ten  dollars."  The 
merchant  turned  to  his  desk  and  wrote  a  check 


The  Unselfish  Man  111 

for  a  hundred,  but  it  was  only  by  urgent  insistence 
that  he  could  induce  Lincoln  to  accept  it. 

It  may  be  that,  as  Lamon  said,  Lincoln  lacked 
"money  sense."  But  if  he  had  possessed  it — the 
least  disposition  to  reach  for  "more,"  would  he 
have  been  the  Lincoln  he  was,  and  is  to  us  now? 

What  men  in  all  history  have  gripped  the  heart 
of  mankind?  Those  who  were  satisfied  with  less 
and  little,  or  those  who  wanted  more?  There  is 
great  spiritual  value  in  the  non-acceptance  of 
money,  especially  when  the  payer  is  in  greater 
need  than  the  receiver,  or  has  needy  ones  depend- 
ent upon  him. 

There  was  once  a  Carpenter  in  Palestine  who 
became  the  preacher  of  very  plain  truth.  We  pre- 
sume that  for  some  years  he  worked  for  meager 
wages.  For  all  his  worldly  possessions  the  sol- 
diers cast  lots.  But  who  may  estimate  the  wealth 
he  gave  to  mankind  in  perpetuity?  Often  the 
question  is  asked :  "What  would  Jesus  do?"  We 
may  also  wisely  ask  with  reference  to  political 
and  business  life,  "What  would  Lincoln  do? — or 
say?" 


THE  MAN  WHO  STAYED  WITH  HIS  JOB 

IT  was  characteristic  of  Lincoln  from  childhood 
that  if  he  undertook  a  thing  he  stayed  with  it 
till  he  completed  it.  If  he  cut  down  a  tree  and 
cleaned  it  up,  trunk,  limb  and  top,  the  job  was 
done  thoroughly.  Speaking  of  this,  he  said,  long 
afterward,  "Up  to  my  twenty- third  year  I  was 
almost  constantly  handling  that  most  useful 
instrument" — the  ax. 

There  is  great  discipline  in  the  school  of  tools, 
and  every  boy — and  girl — should  have  tutelage  in 
it.  There  is  no  better  instrument  in  the  world 
than  the  woodman's  ax  for  one  who  is  able  to 
handle  it.  The  pupil  learns  to  strike  straight  in 
a  given  line,  and  follows  to  the  end  a  definite  plan. 
Abraham  Lincoln  went  at  study  in  the  same  way. 
If  it  was  a  spelling  book,  when  he  got  through 
with  it  he  could  spell.  Nobody  could  turn  him 
down. 

The  first  borrowed  grammar  he  learned  prac- 
tically by  heart. 

When  he  was  nearly  forty  years  old,  and  had 
been  a  term  in  Congress,  he  went  out  to  his 
father's  farm  and  studied  Euclid,  lying  under  the 


The  Man  Who  Stayed  with  His  Job    113 

trees,  till  he  had  mastered  five  of  the  six  books; 
and,  as  he  said,  thought  he  knew  the  meaning  of 
the  word  "demonstrate." 

He  did  not  stay  long  with  his  early  venture  hi 
trade,  for  which  he  had  no  fitness;  but  he  stayed 
fifteen  years  with  the  debts  contracted,  till  every 
dollar  was  paid  with  high  interest. 

He  was  not  over  forward  in  taking  new  respon- 
sibilities, but  once  assumed,  he  never  flinched  or 
shifted  them.  When  he  went  to  Washington  hi 
1861,rno  one  knew  better  than  he  the  measure  of 
his  problem.  Addressing  the  Legislature  of  New 
York,  he  said:  " While  it  is  true  that  I  hold  my- 
self the  humblest  of  all  individuals  who  have  been 
elevated  to  the  Presidency,  I  have  a  more  difficult 
task  to  perform  than  any  of  them." 

Nevertheless,  when  he  took  the  oath  of  office 
a  few  days  later,  and  read  in  clear  tones  his  first 
Inaugural  address,  the  hand  that  took  the  reins  of 
government  did  not  tremble. 

A  few  days  later  he  received  an  astonishing 
letter  from  his  Secretary  of  State,  submitting 
"Some  thoughts  for  the  president's  considera- 
tion." In  this  he  stated  five  propositions,  the  first 
being:  "We  are  at  the  end  of  a  month's  adminis- 
tration, and  yet  without  a  policy,  either  domestic 
or  foreign."  (For  the  letter  entire  see  Nicolay 
and  Hay,  Vol.  Ill,  445-7,  or  Tarbell,  Vol.  Ill,  29.) 


114  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

Seward  proposed  that  to  avoid  war  between 
the  states,  we  should  at  once  evacuate  Fort 
Sumpter,  seek  or  demand  explanations  of  Great 
Britain,  Russia,  Spain  and  France,  and  send 
agents  into  Canada,  Mexico  and  Central  America, 
to  stir  up  opposition  to  over-sea  governments. 
This  "policy"  could  have  no  other  logical  result 
than  to  embroil  us  in  war  with  several  nations  at 
once:  All  for  the  purpose,  and  with  the  hope  of 
diverting  the  South  from  its  plan  of  disunion,  and 
bringing  the  sections  together  for  common  de- 
fence. Then  he  proposed  that  if  the  president  did 
not  wish  to  assume  the  responsibility  of  carrying 
out  such  a  policy,  he  would  do  it  for  him.  "It  is 
not  my  especial  province"  he  wrote,  "but  I  neither 
seek  to  evade  or  assume  it."  Whoever  now  reads 
this  strange  document  can  only  thank  our  stars 
for  the  choice  of  the  convention  in  Chicago,  nearly 
a  year  before. 

To  a  man  not  completely  master  of  himself, 
the  like  of  this  would  have  produced  an  explosion : 
but  the  answer  was  very  simple  and  modest, 
though  positive.  It  was  to  the  effect  that  having 
been  chosen  by  the  people  to  do  a  certain  work, 
and  having  taken  his  oath  to  perform  it,  the 
president  could  only  go  forward  in  the  line  of 
duty,  as  duty  should  be  revealed  from  day  to  day. 
The  secretary  wisely  took  his  place  in  the  cabinet 


The  Man  Who  Stayed  with  His  Job    115 

and  stayed  with  great  usefulness  through  the  en- 
tire administration  of  Lincoln  and  that  of  his 
successor. 

The  explanation  of  his  conduct  is  not  hard  to 
discover.  He  was  in  a  panic  over  the  state  of  the 
country.  He  had  been  grievously  disappointed 
with  his  failure  to  receive  himself  the  highest 
office.  He  apparently  overrated  his  own  abilities, 
and  much  underrated  those  of  his  chief. 

A  few  weeks  later  he  wrote  to  his  wife,  "The 
president  is  the  best  of  us." 

Lincoln,  having  put  his  hand  to  the  work,  would 
never  let  go  if  he  lived,  till  the  work  was  done. 
He  stayed  right  at  headquarters,  attending 
strictly  to  HIS  business.  He  never  went  per- 
ambulating 'round  the  country  making  speeches, 
though  often  urged  to  go.  He  had  a  better  use  for 
his  energies.  He  knew  the  central  point  of  his 
duty  and  stuck  to  it. 

Once  when  he  was  very  weary,  he  said  with  a 
plaintive  smile,  "I  wish  that  George  Washington 
or  some  other  of  the  old  worthies,  might  come  and 
take  this  place  a  few  days  and  let  me  go  for  a  rest." 

With  the  exceptions  of  going  to  Philadelphia  to 
help  open  the  Sanitary  Commission,  and  to 
Gettysburg,  he  went  nowhere  till  the  war  was 
nearly  ended;  when  he  made  a  trip  to  Richmond, 
not  without  risk. 


THE  MONUMENT  OF  LIVING  STONES 

DURING  two  decades  it  was  my  good  fortune 
to  be  in  Springfield  every  second  year.  Two 
places  there  I  never  failed  to  visit :  one,  the  Home 
place,  so  dear  to  Lincoln's  heart,  that  he  had 
looked  upon  for  the  last  time  that  dismal  Feb- 
ruary morning  in  the  year  1861.  Often  this  would 
be  my  morning  walk  before  breakfast.  I  would 
stand  before  it  for  a  few  moments,  seeing  in  im- 
agination the  tall  man  going  in  or  out,  "the  boys" 
following  or  holding  to  his  hands  and  coat. 

Another  place  I  never  failed  to  see  once  on  each 
visit  was  the  great  and  noble  monument,  about 
two  and  a  half  miles  distant.  Seeing  it  many 
tunes  one  grew  to  love  it  more  and  more,  every 
stone  within  and  each  figure  upon  it,  for  all  they 
typify  of  patriotism,  loyalty  and  sacrifice. 

It  has  a  beautiful  setting,  where  prairie  and 
timber  meet;  and  in  May,  the  time  of  my  visit, 

The  verdure  new  is  springing, 
The  birds  are  sweetly  singing; 
A  joyful  chorus  ringing, 
To  the  sky. 

But  now  I  am  thinking  of  another  monument, 
one  that  Stanton  perhaps  visualized  upon  that 


The  Monument  of  Living  Stories       117 

night  in  the  still  room  of  death.  I  am  thinking 
of  those  telegrams  that  take  so  little  space  on 
paper  yet  filled  a  great  place  in  many  lives.  I 
think  of  them  as  living  stones,  electrified  with 
hope,  and  joy  and  peace.  They  make  a  monu- 
ment no  man's  hand  may  fashion  for  another  to 
behold,  but  that  each  may  visualize  for  himself. 

Think  of  those  silent  messages  winging  swiftly, 
by  day  or  night  from  the  operator's  keyboard  in 
Washington,  dictated  at  odd  moments  in  between 
the  weightiest  affairs;  flying  over  mountain  and 
valley,  down  by  the  moonlit  waters  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi it  may  be,  tapping  at  the  door  of  some 
military  prison,  whispering  to  a  general  in  his  tent 
or  to  some  officer  of  a  firing  squad  the  words, 
"Stay!  Do  not  execute!"  And  somewhere  near, 
with  sleepless  eyes  fixed  on  ceiling  or  sky,  there 
lies  a  boy  to  whom  the  words  are  repeated;  and 
he  knows  that  on  the  morrow  he  shall  live  and 
not  die.  Two  words  are  on  his  lips,  repeated 
over  and  again — "Mother," — "Lincoln." 

Imagine  that  several  hundred  stones  of  granite 
were  gathered  together;  that  into  each  stone 
were  chiseled  the  words  of  one  life-saving  dispatch; 
that  these  were  builded  together  in  such  manner 
that  not  one  inscription  should  be  hid,  which 
should  be  the  capstone?  I  am  not  sure  but  it 
would  be  the  one  of  William  Scott,  who  died  upon 


118  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

the  battlefield  a  few  months  following  his  reprieve, 
with  Lincoln's  letter  bound  upon  his  heart:  a 
letter  as  of  a  father  to  a  son  enjoining  him  to  duty. 
But  all  these  telegrams  should  be  worthily  pre- 
served. Living  stones  they  are,  brilliants  shining 
on  the  printed  pages  of  a  history  that  is  sacred. 


WAS  HE  A  DISCIPLINARIAN? 

SO  much  has  been  said  by  writers,  including 
the  present  one,  with  reference  to  Lincoln's 
tender-heartedness  and  clemency,  his  disposition 
to  spare  lives  instead  of  sacrificing  them,  his  fre- 
quent prevention  of  the  execution  of  army  offend- 
ers duly  convicted  and  sentenced,  that  there  is 
danger,  I  believe,  of  over-emphasizing  this  side  of 
his  character.  There  is  a  distinct  obverse  to  the 
shield.  According  to  the  view  of  the  highest  pur- 
pose of  army  regulations,  he  was  a  strict  disciplin- 
arian. He  had  sentiment  abundant,  but  was  no 
sentimentalist.  Whatever  those  of  the  rigid  mili- 
tary school  thought  at  the  time,  he  never  allowed 
his  heart  to  run  away  with  his  head.  He  was 
always  practical,  and  had  good  reasons  for  the 
general  plan  he  followed  of  moderation  and 
clemency  toward  army  offenders.  He  considered 
first  of  all  that  ours  was  a  democratic,  chiefly  a 
volunteer,  army.  Moreover,  of  3,700,000  mustered 
in  1,500,000  were  under  eighteen  years  of  age.  He 
knew  the  spirit  of  such  an  army  was  far  different 


120  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

from  that  of  a  conscripted  army  of  Europe.  He 
felt  that  the  moral  effect  of  an  execution  of  one 
of  their  number  for  any  offense  less  than  that  of 
murder,  was  contrary  to  the  inbred  sense  of  jus- 
tice in  the  breast  of  every  common  soldier.  He 
believed  that  nearly  every  member  of  a  firing  squad 
experienced  within  him  a  feeling  of  rebellion,  of 
shame  and  humiliation  for  the  part  assigned  to 
him,  that  he  would  carry  with  him  through  the 
remainder  of  his  life  an  unhappy  and  regretful 
memory. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Lincoln  thought  of  all 
these  things,  for  he  knew  intimately  the  thought 
of  common  men. 

He  considered  deliberately,  that  with  rare  ex- 
ceptions the  military  execution  of  young  soldiers 
was  really  harmful  to  army  morale.  Estimating 
the  common  soldier,  he  simply  put  himself  in  his 
place;  and  he  cared  more  for  the  common  soldier 
than  he  did  for  the  rules  of  tradition.  Lincoln 
adopted  the  theory  that  every  life  in  the  army  was, 
or  might  be  made,  valuable;  every  enlisted  man 
owed  service  which  he  could  not  render  by  being 
shot;  that  killing  him  was  really  but  a  quick, 
almost  cowardly,  way  of  disposing  of  his  case, 
and  escaping  responsibility  for  him.  Being  dead, 
the  man  or  the  boy  could  never  serve  anybody 
again,  his  family,  the  community  or  the  state. 


Was  He  a  Disciplinarianf 

Being  kept  alive,  he  could  be  made  to  serve  in 
one  place  or  another,  and  always  with  a  chance  of 
reformation  in  his  character. 

Therefore,  in  nearly  every  case  of  commutation 
of  the  death  sentence,  it  was  made  conditional. 
The  sentence  was  not  abrogated;  only  suspended, 
indefinitely.  It  was  held  by  the  president  him- 
self directly  over  the  head  of  the  culprit.  The 
man  might  not  have  heard  of  Damocles,  but  he 
knew  the  feeling  of  an  over-hanging  sword. 

"Until  further  orders,"  read  the  commutation. 
This  meant,  "Your  life  is  in  my  hands,  or  those  of 
the  officer  I  may  designate  to  keep  watch  upon 
you." 

Oftentimes  Mr.  Lincoln  requested,  "Forward 
the  records  in  this  case."  A  study  of  these  would 
decide  him  often  as  to  the  discipline  that  should 
be  exercised — but  discipline  there  was  in  every 
case;  firm  and  relentless.  The  man  might  be  re- 
placed in  the  ranks  of  his  regiment,  where  in  all 
conscience  his  lot  would  not  be  easy,  with  the  eye 
of  everyone  upon  him.  If  the  records  did  not 
justify  this  confidence  on  the  part  of  the  Presi- 
dent, the  man's  sentence  was  often  commuted  to 
hard  labor  in  a  military  prison  or  elsewhere  under 
guard,  for  the  remaining  period  of  enlistment  or 
"during  the  war." 

Here  is  a  dispatch  so  unusual  yet  characteristic 


Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

of  the  president's  inflexible  policy  of  real  dis- 
cipline, that  I  wish  to  quote  it  in  closing: 

Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Dec.  29,  1864. 

To  MAJOR-GENERAL  BUTLER: 

There  is  a  man  in  Company  I,  Eleventh  Connecticut  Vols. 
at  Chapin's  Farm,  Va.,  under  assumed  name  of  William  Stan- 
ley, but  whose  real  name  is  Frank  R.  Judd,  who  is  under 
arrest  and  probably  about  to  be  tried  for  desertion.  He  is 
the  son  of  our  present  minister  to  Prussia,  who  is  a  close 
personal  friend  of  Senator  Trumbull  and  myself.  We  are  not 
willing  for  the  boy  to  be  shot,  but  we  think  it  is  as  well  that 
his  trial  go  regularly  on,  suspending  execution  until  further 
orders  from  me,  and  reporting  to  me. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

Young  Judd  was  to  be  subject  to  the  same  trial 
and  discipline  as  others,  with  the  same  kind  of 
sentence  hanging  over  his  head. 

"Tempering  justice  with  mercy"  is  the  saying 
oft  quoted.  Lincoln  had  a  way  now  and  then  of 
reversing  tune-old  maxims.  For  example,  "Right 
makes  might"  was  the  closing  note  of  his  Cooper 
Institute  speech.  He  tempered  mercy  with 
justice. 


ADVENTURE  AND  ESCAPE— 1828 

IN  studying  Lincoln's  later  achievements  it  is 
worth  while  to  look  back  occasionally  to  the 
experience  of  his  early  years.    We  discover  there 
the  roots  of  character,  the  man  in  the  making. 

"An'  where  be  ye  from?  "  (so  the  old  story  went), 
hailed  to  a  flatboat  from  the  shore. 
"In-ge-anny." 
"What  part?" 
"Posey  county." 
"An'  what  be  ye  loaded  with?" 
"Fruit  an'  timber." 
"What  kind  o' fruit?" 
"Punkins." 

"What  kind  o'  timber?" 
"Hoop-poles!" 

In  the  "Autobiography"  June,  1860,  written  as 
the  base  for  a  campaign  "Life,"  speaking  of  him- 
self in  third  person  as  Abraham,  he  relates  briefly 
and  simply  some  narrow  escapes. 

"In  his  tenth  year,  he  was  kicked  by  a  horse 
and  apparently  killed  for  a  time" —  (This  occurred 


124  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

many  miles  from  home  at  a  mill  that  ground  by 
horsepower,  where  he  had  taken  a  grist  of  corn  on 
horseback.)  It  was  the  same  year  in  which  his 
mother  died,  probably  soon  after,  when  new  corn 
was  ripe. 

Again,  "When  he  was  19,  still  residing  in 
Indiana,  he  made  his  first  trip  on  a  flatboat  to 
New  Orleans.  He  was  a  hired  hand  merely,  and 
he  and  a  son  of  the  owner,  without  other  as- 
sistance made  the  trip."  What  a  venture  was  this 
for  two  young  fellows  in  their  'teens  down  the 
Ohio  and  lower  Mississippi!  Think  of  the  toil  and 
danger  of  it,  the  skill  and  courage  called  for  in 
the  waters  with  their  varying  currents,  waves  of 
passing  steamboats,  and  river  outlaws.  But 
these  were  not  all.  "The  nature  of  the  'cargo- 
load  '  as  it  was  called,  made  it  necessary  for  them 
to  linger  and  trade  along  the  sugar  coast"  (the 
river  plantations  of  Mississippi  or  Louisiana), 
"and  one  night  they  were  attacked  by  seven 
negroes  with  intent  to  kill  and  rob  them.  They 
were  hurt  some  in  the  melee,  but  succeeded  in 
driving  the  negroes  from  the  boat,  and  then,"  he 
adds  facetiously,  they  "'cut  cable,'  'weighed 
anchor'  and  left."  What  sturdy  chaps  they  were! 
It  was  "all  in  the  game,"  and  they  seem  to  have 
treated  the  matter  lightly.  But  suppose  the  ne- 
groes had  succeeded;  their  parents  would  never 


Adventure  and  Escape  125 

have  learned  in  all  probability  what  became  of 
them.  In  that  case,  or  if  the  horse  kick  had  been 
fatal,  American  history  would  have  been  different. 
We  may  wonder  if  the  "hired  hand"  spared  to 
emancipate  those  negroes  or  their  descendants, 
thirty-five  years  later,  did  not  think  of  them  while 
writing  his  proclamation. 

Yes,  it  was  a  great  adventure  for  Abraham. 
There  was  much  of  imagination  in  it.  He  was 
playing  that  they  really  sailed  a  ship  at  sea;  set 
upon  by  pirates,  they  "cut  cable,"  "weighed 
anchor"  and  escaped. 

The  trip  was  all  romantic  for  the  backwoods 
youth;  more  than  a  thousand  miles  along  the  one 
great  channel  of  commerce,  and  to  the  one  great 
market  of  the  West.  The  flatboat  was  a  palace 
floating  through  a  sea  of  dreams.  New  scenes 
appeared  with  every  turn,  and  not  a  moment  of 
the  day  lacked  interest. 

Worth  more  than  any  college  year  was  this 
brief  term  upon  the  Mississippi,  where  Lincoln 
went  to  school  in  1828;  and  Mark  Twain  some 
years  later. 


PAY  HEED  TO  HIS  WORDS 

NOT  only  we  of  the  United  States,  but  those  of 
the  world  at  large,  might  have  prevented 
infinite  loss  and  sorrow  by  taking  heed  to  the 
words  of  Lincoln.  As  a  hint  pertaining  to  our 
right  relations  with  other  peoples,  we  may  note 
the  following  two  sentences  of  a  speech  delivered 
previous  to  his  nomination  for  the  presidency. 
It  was  intended  to  apply  primarily  to  home  con- 
ditions, but  the  principle  enunciated  reaches 
farther. 

"We  admit  that  the  United  States  General 
Government  is  not  charged  with  the  duty  of  re- 
dressing or  preventing  all  the  wrongs  in  the  world. 
But  the  Government  rightfully  may,  and  subject 
to  the  constitution  ought  to,  redress  all  wrongs 
which  are  wrongs  to  the  nation  itself." 

Do  we  not  see  clearly  the  application  of  this 
principle,  and  the  extension  of  it  to  the  con- 
federated peoples  of  the  earth,  who  are  struggling 
for  righteousness  and  true  democracy?  And  are 
we  not  one  of  them? 

The  issues  of  the  European  war  in  which  we 
took  part  were  essentially  the  same  as  those  of  the 


Pay  Heed  to  His  Words  127 

Civil  War  in  the  United  States.  We  might  indeed 
call  it  a  civil  war  of  the  world. 

What  was  the  core  of  the  questions  involved? 

Shall  a  small  party,  a  condensed  unit  of  strong 
men,  holding  the  machinery  of  government  in 
their  hands,  assume  to  dominate  not  only  their 
own  nation,  but,  with  and  by  that  nation,  other 
nations,  and  the  world?  Was  not  this  a  violation 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  world,  well  understood 
though  unwritten  hi  form?  What  was  the  real 
core  of  the  Civil  War  in  this  country?  An  auto- 
cratic party  in  certain  states,  strong  men  united 
by  a  common  interest  in  human  property  and  all 
the  social  relations  created  thereby,  declared  that 
ODC  state  should  be  superior  to  the  Union  as  a 
whole  and  might  separate  itself  at  will,  They 
assumed  that  a  number  of  such  seceding  states 
might  confederate  in  splitting  the  Union  and 
forming  a  new  confederation. 

These  men,  comparatively  few,  constituted  an 
autocracy,  a  privileged  class,  largely  hereditary, 
who  dominated  everything  within  then*  states. 
They  controlled  education  or  largely  prevented 
it,  placing  the  ban  on  free  and  true  information, 
as  did  the  German  autocracy. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  by  which 
all  states  were  bound,  provided  for  the  election 
of  a  president  and  ether  officers  of  the  General 


1%8  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

Government.  In  accordance  with  this  provision, 
Mr.  Lincoln,  by  legal  and  fair  election,  was  made 
president. 

*  There  was  not  the  slightest  violation  of  law 
involved,  either  by  him  or  his  party.    The  question 
following  was  simple.    Shall  the  majority  rule  in 
accordance  with  the  law  to  which  all  are  equally 
bound?     This  was  the  plain  proposition  in  the 
forefront  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  deliverances  on  his  way 
to  Washington. 

Those  of  all  parties,  in  the  North,  with  few  ex- 
ceptions, gave  the  answer  "yes."  They  knew 
what  the  issue  was;  they  had  full  and  free  infor- 
mation. The  leaders  of  the  South,  the  autocracy, 
also  knew,  and  said  "no!"  The  common  people 
of  the  South  had  not  free  information,  but  misin- 
formation. They  did  not  know  they  were  fighting 
to  perpetuate  and  extend  class  government,  not 
only  on  others,  but  themselves.  A  large  propor- 
tion of  the  whites  were  unable  to  read,  being 
without  free  schools.  If  they  did  read  a  news- 
paper they  were  none  the  wiser.  They  made  up 
the  mass  and  bulk  of  common  soldiers,  being 
officered  by  the  governing  class.  In  all  these  things 
they  were  as  the  common  soldiery  of  Germany. 

*  Alexander  H.  Stephens  told  the  Convention  in  Georgia  that 
there  existed  no  legal  cause  or  excuse  for  secession — yet  he  bowed 
to  the  will  of  his  party  and  accepted  the  Vice-Presidency  of  the 
Confederacy. 


Pay  Heed  to  His  Words  129 

But  they  were  not,  like  many  of  the  German  sol- 
diers, cruel  or  brutal.  They  had  a  very  different 
heredity,  and  the  inborn  spirit  of  true  chivalry. 
They  were  honest  people  misguided,  as  Lincoln 
knew,  and  he  had  for  them  only  thoughts  of  pity 
and  deeds  of  kindness. 


CAMPAIGN  EXPENSES 

TO  a  political  supporter  in  Illinois,  well  meaning, 
no  doubt,  Lincoln  wrote  in  March,  1860,  three 
months  previous  to  his  nomination:  "Thanking 
you  very  sincerely  for  your  kind  purposes  toward 
me,  I  am  compelled  to  say  the  money  part  of  the 
arrangement  you  propose  is,  with  me,  an  impos- 
sibility. I  could  not  raise  ten  thousand  dollars 
if  it  would  save  me  from  the  fate  of  John  Brown. 
Nor  have  my  friends,  as  far  as  I  know,  yet  reached 
the  point  of  staking  any  money  on  my  chances  of 
success." 

To  another  friend  he  had  written  the  day  before: 
"Allow  me  to  say  that  I  cannot  enter  the  ring  on 
the  money  basis — first,  because  in  the  main  it  is 
wrong;  and  secondly,  I  have  not  and  cannot  get 
the  money.  I  say  in  the  main,  the  use  of  money 
is  wrong,  but  for  certain  objects  in  a  political  con- 
test the  use  of  some  is  both  right  and  indispensable. 
With  me,  as  with  yourself,  the  long  struggle  has 
been  one  of  great  pecuniary  loss.  I  now  distinctly 
say  this,  that  if  you  shall  be  appointed  a  delegate 
to  Chicago,  I  will  furnish  you  one  hundred  dollars 
to  bear  the  expenses  of  the  trip."  He  believed, 


Campaign  Expenses  131 

evidently,  that  his  friend  was  even  worse  off  than 
himself. 

Looking  back  now  it  is  easy  to  believe  that  in 
1858  "money  influence"  in  Illinois  may  have 
been  strong  enough,  directly  and  indirectly,  to 
defeat  Lincoln  and  elect  Douglas.  On  the  part  of 
Lincoln  and  his  party  the  battle  was  fought  en- 
tirely upon  the  one  moral  issue: — opposition  to 
the  extension  of  slavery  and  the  creation  of  any 
more  slave  states. 

On  the  other  hand,  many  business  interests 
angrily  demanded  that  "all  this  agitation  be 
stopped,"  because  it  created  financial  disturbance, 
especially  in  our  relations  with  the  South. 

Corporate  influence  was  secretly,  if  not  openly, 
arrayed  on  the  side  of  slavery  or  compromise. 

George  B.  McClellan,  the  young  and  self-im- 
portant vice-president  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad,  placed  his  private  car  at  the  disposal  of 
Senator  Douglas  for  weeks  at  a  tune.  With  bands 
playing,  banners  flying,  rooters  rooting,  it  tra- 
versed the  whole  state,  sometimes  sweeping  by  a 
"local"  or  a  "freight"  on  a  siding  where  Lincoln 
sat  in  the  caboose  with  a  few  friends,  waiting  for 
a  clear  track. 

Once  he  remarked,  with  a  smile,  "I  guess  they 
don't  detect  any  odor  of  royalty  in  our  outfit." 

How  easy  it  is  now  to  see  that  the  plain  and  un- 


182  Lincoln  Lessons  for  Today 

pretending  man  in  the  railway  "caboose"  was  the 
one  really  great :  that  the  men  who  swept  past  him 
were  but  preparing  the  way  for  their  own  failure 
ultimately.  Money  and  power  and  show  and 
ostentation  were  all  against  Lincoln  at  the  time; 
God  and  Truth  were  with  him. 


A  "SIX  BIT"  CAMPAIGN 

When  Lincoln  was  a  candidate  for  Congress  in 
1846  his  friends  subscribed  $200.00  for  his  cam- 
paign expenses.  When  the  conflict  was  over  he 
gave  back  to  the  treasurer  $199.25,  with  the 
statement  that  his  expense  had  been  but  75  cents 
for  the  entire  canvass.  Wherever  he  went  he  said 
he  found  friends  who  cared  for  him  and  his  horse 
without  charge,  and  he  wished  the  money  returned 
to  the  owners.  He  had  spent  three  quarters  of  a 
dollar  only;  that  for  a  few  gallons  of  cider  to  treat 
a  lot  of  hands  hi  harvest. 


